104 



CANARY BIRDS. 



also extended to a finch, viz., the canary. Considering that 

 this new phase certainly claims our attention, I shall here 

 summarise all the information hitherto collected on this 

 subject, and, to my intense satisfaction, I am fortunate 

 enough to be able to describe a speaking canary from my 

 own personal observation. On the 23rd of April, 1883, 

 I called upon the wife of Councillor Graber of Princes' 

 Street, Berlin, in order to see and to hear the small artist 

 for myself. The lady regretfully observed that my call 

 would likely be in vain, as the bird did not seem disposed 

 to speak on that day. In the meantime she told me that 

 she had received it when it was quite young, that it sang 

 very prettily at first, but, having finished moulting, it 

 suddenly became mute. This lasted a long time, and she 

 often spoke to the bird saying, " Do sing, little birdie ! 

 How do you say wide wide witt 1 " "You may imagine my 

 astonishment when, for the first time, the bird repeated the 

 words which I had uttered. I scarcely believed my senses, 

 and did not at all know what to make of it. When I told 

 my husband what had occurred, he said, ' Take care not to 

 let other people hear of this, or we shall be laughed at ; ' for 

 not long ago, we ourselves had ridiculed the allegation that 

 somebody had heard a canary speak." While the lady was 

 giving me this information, the bird in question began most 

 zealously to sing, and in the middle of his song it sounded 

 as follows : " Widewidewitt." " How do you sing, birdie, 

 mine'?" ''Sing, oh, do sing, birdie, widewidewitt." 

 Again and again it repeated it, and the words sounded 

 ahvays clearer to me, until the lady laughingly remarked, 

 "It seems as if he wanted to display all his art in your 

 presence, for he has not, for a long time past, practised it 

 with so much ardour." It is a robust, slender, pretty 

 (although not regularly marked) bird of the common 

 German species, and is distinguished by the great vivacity 



