The daily gazette., 1877-07-27
TANNING A CANARY BIRD

, saw. vi pcdulhui PiuhoSO, Sh"OO
full form, and sly yet winsome ways,
his natural song, blended with the
notes of nightingale, his first in
structor, charmed all who CHANGED
to hear it. | must confess, how
ever, to some misgivings in my first
endeavors to gain the affections of
this bird, For several days he con-
fronted my approaches by the most
willful conduct, and every repeated
attempt to gain his goodwill was
rebutted. l have seen birds that
one could tame by simply talking to
them in a natural, subdued voice.
But / i'm was not one of this sort,
and something more protent than
"silvery tongue' was needed to i'm
press him with a sense of the situa-
ton. Matters had thus continued
for about a week or ten days, when
| found myself obliged to resort to
more severe measures. In the early
morning his cage was cleaned and
fresh water put IN, but no food was
allowed. You would have smiled
to see him peeping coyly down into
his seed-cup, and yet disdainfully,
on discovering nothing there. His
apparent comprehension of s'hard
tines gave him the half-haughty
and halt-saddened look that most
men wear under like circumstances.
At two hours survey gave him a
pretty clear notion of the situation;
he seemed now to take it at all in at
a glance, and whether convinced or
not that this was his first lesson, he
appeared to be at least a fit subject
for further, experiment. So, without
saying a word, | opened the cage
door, and with few seeds in my
hand. l thrust the latter gently into
the cage. But not yet had he reach
ed the verge of starvation; the seeds
looked tempting, to be sure, but not
sufficiently so to lower his dignity.
Hence patient waiting of two hours
more. Again the hand was thrust
into the cago, few seeds were
snatched up with lightning speed,
and after this l was given to under
stand that Tim is hungry, but never
stoops! | counted it a most encou-
raging sign, however, that the bird
should deign to pick up the seeds at
the end OF four hours training.
At the close of the sixth hour, Tim
was as calm as an April sunset; he
was, indeed, most tractable, and no
sooner had | again put my hand con-
tanning the seeds into the cage than
he perched upon my thumb as
cheerily as though it had been his
perch, and began to devour the prof
tered food.
| allowed him to satisfy his hung
er for about one minute then | drew
my hand with the bird out of the
cage, and retreated to a chair. Be-
fore | had seated myself, however,
he had deserted me, and had perched
above the window: "You may stay
| there all day if you like, my fine fell
low, but you'll find it poor pasture
for hungry birds. " [ held the seed
cup in my hand, and on the floor be-
side me lay small vial of oil of anise.
"When you get ready, you may come
and get your seed, Tim," said l;
and then l went on with my whist
ling. For half hour or more the
bird had the freedom of the room,
and half in despair and half eager to
improve the time, | sat down at my
writing-desk, placed the seed cup
and oil bottle in front of me, and
went on with my work. [ had well
nigh, while absorbed in other thoughts
forgotten Tim, when, on a sudden,
| felt slight rustling on my shoulder,
and a moment later he was on the
table in front of me. He was allow
ed to gather up few more seeds;
then J seized him gently, opened the
vial, rubbed very small quantity of
the anise upon his nostrils, and then
replaced him on the table. 1t must
have been an hour before the intoxi-
cation or stupor (Which, for the bene-
fit of gentle readers, let me say is,
perfectly harmless) passed off; then
the bird began to eat again, and
finally, on little persuasion, hoped
upon my finger, then on another, and
so on back and forth until | put him
back into hisscage. Hardly was he
returned when he poured forth his
strains of sweetest melody.
i On the next day, after cleaning
the cage, l placed it on my table
leaving the door open and the seed
cup outside. 1t required no per-
: suasion whatever to induce the bird
to come out, and now every sign O.
! terror had left him. While he ate
: | gently stroked his feathers, talked
to him, whistled to him, fondlec
hint was all | cared to do. Tin
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