THE CANARY BIRD. 
27 
These birds are also distinguished by their correctness of 
ear, the remarkable skill they possess of imitating all tones, 
and their excellent memory. Not only do they imitate the 
notes of other birds, which they greatly improve by mixing 
them with their own, but they will even learn to utter short 
words with some degree of correctness. In their wild and 
undomesticated state, their song is unvaried, as with most other 
birds, less melodious, of fewer notes, and uttered at longer 
intervals than with us; at least, I found them so, as far as my 
observation extended, when a resident of the Canary Isles. 
ORIGIN AND HISTORY. 
Those birds, from which are descended the Canaries now 
kept and reared throughout the whole of Europe, and even in 
Russia and Siberia, as well as in various parts of North and 
South America, in an unadulterated state, are natives of the 
Canary Islands, where they breed in pleasant valleys, and on 
the delightful banks of small rills, or streams. They were 
known in Europe as long ago as the beginning of the sixteenth 
century, as we are told, concerning their arrival, that, “ A ship, 
which, in addition to other merchandize, had a multitude of 
Canaries on board, that were consigned to Leghorn, was 
wrecked on the coast of Italy, and the birds, thereby obtaining 
their liberty, flew to the nearest land.” This happened to be 
Elba, where they found so propitious a climate, that they multi¬ 
plied without the intervention of man, and probably would 
have naturalised themselves, had not the wish to possess them 
been so great as to occasion them to be hunted after until they 
were entirely extirpated. In Italy, therefore, we find the first 
tame Canaries, where they are still raised in great numbers. 
At first, their rearing in Europe was attended with con¬ 
siderable difficulty, partly because the mode of treating 
these delicate strangers was not sufficiently understood, but 
principally because males, chiefly, and not females, were 
> introduced. ^ 
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