The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1890-02-01

Fig 4. and fold both as it is
at in sketch. By putting these points
Place one inside the other. commencing with
smallest, until the nest is complete.
Tricks to Teach the Birds.
Canaries can be taught some simple and
very amusing tricks, says F. Il. Stauffer in
the Philadelphia Times, and you need not
spend very much time over it, either, the lit
tie fellows are so cunning. In addition to
that, they are very obs9rvant, more so than
young folks sometimes are. Naturalists tell
lis that canary has more brains than an
elephant; OF course they mean in proportion
to the size of the head.
Canaries can be taught to fire off small
cannon, play see-saw, feign death, pull a
cart. etc: This requires great amount of
time and patience, and II NAV be necessary
to punish the birds, which would be cruel.
But there are cunning little things which
the birds will take to themselves. no train
ing being necessary.
once knew little girl who taught her
canary TO ring oell whenever he wanted
his dinner. How do you think she did it?
She suspended a little bell in corner of the
cage with q string attached to IT, She would
leave him without food for an hour or two
then she would ring the bell by pulling the
string. and at the same time place little of
she had done this number of times he dis
covered tn at every time the bell rang he got
a meal, and he began to pull the string him
self whenever his seed-glass was empty.
This reminds me of story about a king
fisher that had built its nest in a quarry. a
whenever they were ready to set off a blast
the foreman would ring bell that was
swung on pole. whereupon all the men
would run from the quarry. 1t was noticed
that the bird understood the warning of dan
ger and every time flew out OF its hole In the
side of the bank The foreman, when tell.
ing visitors about it, would ring the bell and
out would fly the kiDgfsher. But, noticing
that no explosion followed, the bird, after
being fooled five or six times, remained on
its nest. 1t always left it, however. If the
workmen ran when the bell rang. II was a
keen observer, don't you think
You can teach canary to lift the lid of n
seed-box in order to get at the seed. OI
course the lid must be of light wire, must
work easily and fall shut at once when not
lowering it a little every few hours, and Id
will pick the seed, though the opening grows
narrower. When the lid at last is lowered
altogether he will soon lift it with his beak
in order to get at the seed. You will notice
him take out three or four seeds at time
and put them aside so that he need not iii
the lid so often.
He can Just as readily be taught to lift q
tiny bucket Of water in order to get drink
A little bay window, with wooden bottom
must be attached to the cage. A ronnd
hole is bored into the bottom and piece Of
wire fastened across it, on, which is hung i
light silver chain, with silver bucket about
the size of a thimble attached to 1t. Under
the floor of the bay window, resting ia a ring
fastened to the side of the cage. a small col
ored glass tumbler is placed, which is filled
with water and represents the well
For several days place the tiny bucket or
the floor Of the bay window, so that the ca
nary will get accustomed to looking there
for his water Then lower it a little into Tho
lumber more and more every day. He will
finally pull up the bucket the full length q
the chain, and do it with signs of gratfi
cation. In his first haul he will notice tha
every time he let's 60 with, his beak tn,
bucket falls back. He will soon proven
that by holding each fresh haul of the chat
with his feet, ana when the bucket appear,
in the hole he will keep his foot on the chair
nutil he has had his drink.