The Abbeville messenger. (Abbeville, S.C.) 1884-1887, 1886-02-02
WORTH MORE THAN MONEY.
The Reason TINT II Bird Seller Deemed
One of his Cnnuries Priceless. .

-
cit is very hard to make a canary
bird sing a tune" said an uptown bird
fanclcr to an inquisitivc amateur orni-
biologist. Every hard, indeed, and l
have only one tunc-singing bird in my
work to train a bird to this state of mu-
steal perfection. In Germany, where
most Of bur canary birds come from.
there arc families who do nothing else
for a livelihood except train birds in
this accomplishment. 1t is done in this
way: They always have one bird that
can sing a tune, and he is shut up IN a
dark room with a young bird that has
shown some ability as u singer. After
a while the young bird begins to imi-
tate the other, and in the course of a
couple of months he can sing the tune
very we'll. Then he is taken away from
his teacher, and and a music box that
plays the same tune is put into the
room, and the old bird is transferred to
another room, where he teaches the
same lesson to another young bird. Only
one bird Gun be taught at a time, and,
as very often the young bird is unable
to learn n tune ut all, you can form some
idea of the difficulties in the way of the
work. OF course this makes the birds
very expensive. An ordinary canary
bird sells for three dollars, and some
bring five dollars, while a bird that
sings n tune readily commands fifty to
five hundred dollars, according to the
extent and merit of its accomplishments.
l have known of n canary that could
sing three tunes, but such birds are very
scarce indeed. / nave never heard of an
other. That n belongs to the King of
Bavaria.
81 own a singing bird that can't be
got from me with money" said the
dealer, as he turned to a cage behind
him. "Hc only sings one tune, but 1
can tell you a remarkable story abou
him. My daughter trained him herself
when we lived in Germany, six years
ago. She trained him to sing a song of
her own improvisation. OF course it is
much harder for a person to train a bird
than for another bird to be the teacher,
and it took her nearly six months before
the little fellow could sing it through
without making q mistake"
Here the bird fancier whistled a few
bars Of n melody which the bird took
up and finished without q break.
"Wcll," continued the dealer, Sat
about that time ! concluded to come to
America, and leaving my daughter be-
hind me- was a widower-l sailed for
Dew York. Soon after landing 1 c opened
a store in Harlem and sent for my daugh-
ter. BY some mishap l failed to meet
her, and the most careful inquiries
threw no light on her whereabouts. I
knew she had sailed, but I couldn't
learn the name of the steamer or any
thing about ncr. At last, after search
ing for her until [ had spent almost all
they had, I gave up in despair. One
day l was walking down Mulberry
street, when 1 heard a street boy whist
ling this very air you have heard the
bird sing. stopped him, and inquired
where he had heard it. He said that
a young woman in the same tenement
house where he lived had q bird that
sang it. Need I say more? l had him
lead me there ut once, and soon discov-
cred that the owner of the bird was my
lost daughter. She was miscrably'poor,
and was making her living scrubbing
offices. She had come on another
steamer than the one I had intended
her to take, and having lost my address
had not been able to trace me any bet
ter than I had her."-N. Y. San.