The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1884-08-29
1T MADE HIM SING.
Mr.. Edwards Prescription for Evolv.
ing Melody from sccalcit-
rant Birds.

II any one has canary bird that
won't sing" said Mr.. William Edwards
to New York San reporter. II can
give him a prescription that / never
knew to fail in making bird a first
class warbler"
Mr.. Edwards is the naturalist who
has been mentioned heretofore in the
Sun in connection with experiments
having in view the possible dOmestica-
ton OF the alligator in Sheepshead bay.
These experiments, it may BIO remem-
bered, were not entirely satisfactory,
owing to the drowning of ono of MIR.
Edwards two subjects, and to the sue
cumbing of the other. last winter, to
uncongenial climatic influences, after q
six months diet of air.
I'm the case of this prescription"
continued Mr.. Edwards, sit is the bird
that is to be well shaken before taken,
instead of the medicine. discovered
it in this way: Our canary-bird, Dick,
is 5 years old, and when. his notes were
due, after careful bringing up, he
failed to utter q sound. We waited o
reasonable length of time. and as he
did not show any inclination to sing,
we looked on the time and care that we
bestowed upon him as entirely thrown
away. II he had not been such hand
some bird he would have been disposed
of at once. but his style kept HIM in
the family. He was housed in pretty
brass cage, and received more attention
than he deserved, as we then thought.
About year ago, Dicks cage was
hanging in an upper window one day,
and from some cause it fell TO the
ground below. When the cage was
picked up it was found that one of the
birds legs was broken. We were
about to put Dick out of his misery,
when lady who lived near us inter
fered. She said she could make him
as good as new, which we didn't think
was doing much, as when he was new
Dick wasn't inventoried very high by
us. The lady, however, took him and
splintered the broken leg. For three
weeks Dick laid on the bottom of his
cage rs patient as could be. He took
his rations with discouraging regularity
aud relish. and one day hoped upon
his perch as pert and fresh as if he had
just returned from long vacation in
the country.
"But he was as mute as q mummy.
His style was as handsome as ever,
though, and he paraded it to its full ca
pacity. About three weeks after COM
ing out of the hospital, Dicks apart
ment was again hanging in the same
window and again tumbled to the
ground. The limb that had been so
carefully dootored and nursed before
was again broken. We splintered it as
previously, and in short time brought
the bird around once more. The day
that he resumed his position on his
perch will never be forgotten in our
family. He jumped to his place, cock
ed his eyes around the room, as if to
see whether we were all present,
Strengthened himself, stretched out his
neck, and-well, talk about a canary
bird singing. He filed the room with
unheard of notes, and sent them ring
ing out of the windows until they PEN
etrated the whole neighborhood and
set every bird there was within quar-
ter of a mile to singing at pitch that
threatened the splitting of all the feath-
cred throats that part of the bay con-
tanned. Singp Why, he wouldn't stop.
He kept it up right along all day. and
woke up in the night to put in bar or
two he had forgotten to execute before.
l guess that all the music that had
been pent up in his soul for four years
got away from him that day and night.
But if it did he filled up again right
away, for Dick has ever been able to
provide an abundant supply of it ever
since.
You see that bird had simply been
stubborn all his life. He could have
been singing for four years if he'd
wanted to, and he knew it, but he'd
made up his mind that he'd take it ca
sy and put on style. When the cage
fell out of the window with him the first
time he didn't think so much about it,
but when it dropped tho second time
he began to wake up to what he be-
lieved the true situation was. He got
it into his head that he was dropped
out of that window because he wouldn't
sing, and two trips was all he wanted.
He made up his mind the second that
if he ever got around again he would
sing until he made things hum, and he
did.
That's my prescription for making
canary birds sing when they won't
sing, and have no reason to believe
that it won't work the charm every
time, if used according to directions"