A SEMINARY FOR TEACHING BIRDS HOW TO SING. 
UYING and importing song 
I f-<. birds, says the Scientific 
I s v^) ; ) American^ occupies the 
^— K^g^ time and attention of sev- 
eral scores of people in 
New York, and as the distributing 
center of this peculiar trade, the city 
is often the home of considerable num- 
bers of song birds gathered from all 
quarters of the globe. On the East 
side, in Fourth street, there are several 
remarkable aviaries where, without 
doubt, a study of one branch of ornith- 
ology can be pursued under conditions 
more favorable than elsewhere on this 
continent, and a visit to one of these 
bird conservatories of music is better 
than a trip to the fields or woods to 
listen to the songs of the wild warblers. 
The owner of the aviary is a German 
— more than probable from some little 
village in the Hartz Mountains, where 
bird-raising is the chief industry, — and 
he n »t only feeds and tends his little 
birds with loving care, but teaches 
them to whistle and sing in tune to 
the accompaniment of an old reed 
organ or flute. 
There are several large importing 
houses of song birds in New York, and 
in the busy season they employ from 
twenty to forty travelers who go back 
and forth from Europe to purchase the 
pick of the Canaries, Bullfinches and 
other European songsters. The con- 
signments come chiefly from Germany 
and England. Nearly all the Canaries 
raised in the world for cage purposes 
come from these two countries, and 
most of the German exporting houses 
have distributing branches in New 
York. The birds are sent over by 
steamer in large consignments under 
the charge of an expert care-tender, 
who does nothing else but feed and 
doctor the little pets placed under his 
charge. One experienced man can 
take charge of five large crates, each 
one containing two hundred and ten 
cages of birds, or a little over a thou- 
sand in all. Sometimes during the 
rush season the care-tender has five 
hurricane deckers to watch, or fourteen 
hundred cages and birds to look after 
during the long hours of the days and 
nights. 
That this work is not easy, any one 
who has had the privilege of looking 
after a single canary for a week can 
well understand. Feeding and water- 
ing over a thousand birds, and clean- 
ing out their cages every day, makes 
up a routine of work on shipboard that 
begins at four o'clock in the morning 
and does not end until late in the 
afternoon. When seasickness makes 
life miserable for the passengers, the 
canaries are apt to be uncomfortable 
in their crowded quarters. Sometimes 
a disease known as " schnappen " 
breaks out among the Canaries at such 
times, and as this is fearfully contag- 
ious, it sweeps through the crowded 
bird quarters on shipboard and deci- 
mates the ranks at a terrible rate. 
Cases are known where only ten birds 
have survived out of an importation of 
eight hundred to a thousand, the 
disease performing its terrible work in 
a week's time. This is supposed to 
be caused as much by the over crowded 
and poorly ventilated condition of the 
birds' quarters as by the rolling of the 
ship. If you ask Fritz if his birds get 
seasick, he will answer emphatically 
" No ; " but he will add softly to him- 
self " schnappen." And in that word 
is conveyed much of meaning that the 
lay mind cannot appreciate. 
When the imported birds arrive in 
port, they are hurried immediately to 
the importing houses, or to the differ- 
ent quiet aviaries in the German quar- 
ters, where experienced bird raisers 
take them in charge. It is at this 
latter place that one may make an 
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