Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1885-06-26
SINGING
Fancy Prices for Highly Accomplished
Birds-The Method of Teaching.

Fancy Prices for Highly Accomplished
Birds-The Method of Teaching.
An advertisement called for a sing.
ing parrot, with the addendum that
the price must not be a fancy one, and
that no dealers need apply.
"Are singing parrots rare?" a bird
fancier was asked.
Singing is an accomplishment that
very few parrots acquire" he replied,
land a good singing parrot-one that
knows three or four songs and sings
them Wells very rare indeed. The
advertiser will hardly secure one with
out paying a fancy price, His warn
ing to dealers not to apply seems un-
necessary, for if a dealer CHANGED to
have a good one he certainly would
not care to sell him cheap. But deal
ers do not very often have singing par
rots in stock, for the birds only learn
to sing we'll in private families, where
music is an everyday recreation, and
some one is patient enough to give
them lessons. After they are once
taught their owners are not willing to
part with them.
1.-The African and Mexican parrots
are. by long odds. the best singers, as
they are the best takers and whistlers.
They are, in fact, by far the most intel
ligent, and so. of course, the easiest to
teach. If n of either kind is a pet
in a musical family, and the person
who feeds him sings to him while he is
eating. he will quickly learn both the
words and the June of the song-learn
them so well that if his teacher is
guilty of a false note it will be
difficult to rectify the error
later. One song should be thoroughly
mastered before another is attempted,
and no effort should be made to teach
a parrot to sing before he has passed
his first year. If a parrot is we'll and
patiently taught he will sing so accu-
rately, both as to the tune and the pro-
nunciation of the words, that it will be
found, after a time, wholly impossible
to distinguish his singing from that of
the human voice. We have had,
though rarely, such birds, and if ono
of them were placed out of sight, but
within hearing, I would defy the sharp
Soo AosS COL III JIG WOElO " ucIcCU
anything in his song indicating that it
was a bird singing and not a man or a
woman; for he sings always with a
voice pitched after the manner of his
teacher.
"Of course, such birds are very ex-
pensive. and it is folly to advertise for
a cheap>one. Some time ago we had
an African parrot here that sang
Pretty Polly Perkins, but not very
well. We sold him to a dealer for fifty
dollars. He was perfected in Polly
Perkins, and sold for one hundred dol
lars. Later, having learned q second
song, he brought two hundred dollars,
and finally a finished master of three
songs, he was bought by a gentleman
in this city for three hundred dollars.
You could not purchase him now for
love or money, he knows so many
songs and whistles such a number OF
tunes, to say nothing of his converse
tional powers.
''Tbe birds learn to sing in German,
English, OF French inditferently. The
language of their songs is dependent
upon the nationality Of the family by
whom they are brought up. Some sins
in more languages than one, and suci
are highly valued.-M. 7. San.