FREE FLYING OF CANARIES. 



105 



of his movements. His song is inartistic, not by no means 

 shrill or unpleasant, though our critical connoisseurs would 

 at once class him among the " schappers." He speaks to 

 his mistress only, and is not at all tame, but, on the con- 

 trary, very shy with other persons. Of course the canary 

 does not articulate the words with a human sound, but 

 rather weaves them into the midst of his song ; thus the 

 words mentioned above sounded quite like a harmony, and 

 at the first moment one had to be keenly attentive, but, 

 by degrees, they grew to be clearly intelligible, and we could 

 hear the words with full distinctness, so that it was quite 

 unnecessary to ascertain their meaning beforehand. It was 

 in England where the first speaking canary was discovered. 

 I only received a short time ago, through Mr. I. Abrahams of 

 London, the well-known wholesale dealer in birds, the re- 

 spective communication. In the year 1858 Mr. L. Leigh, 

 Sotheby, mentioned at the meeting of the Zoological Society 

 in London, that a canary which had been fostered by hand, 

 when three months old, surprised one day its mistress by 

 repeating the caressing words which had been addressed to 

 it, and that it learnt by-and-bye other words. For hours he 

 pronounces various words in different connexions, imitating 

 the human voice. 



Free Flying of Canaries. — Although it can only be 



looked upon as play, I will yet indicate to amateurs a pro- 

 ceeding by which the birds may be accustomed to fly in and 

 out of their cage. A large canary-cage, in which there is a 

 nesting pair, should be placed in a suitable room, an attic, 

 for instance, inside the window, which is provided with a 

 slide and can be opened on warm days, so that the birds get 

 used to the air, until by degrees they can bear all its 

 variations. As soon as the pair has young birds, the latter 

 are taken out of the cage, and placed upon the nearest trees 

 (three or four days after they are fledged); and when they have 



