Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1894-03-03
cAkARiEs BY THE THOUSAND
seven Hundred Families ln One German
Town Rear and Educate Singers.

1
seven Hundred FamIlies in One German
| Town Rear and Educate Singers.
In q small town called ST Andreas-
berg, Saxony, some 700 families are
entirely engaged In the task of rear
ing and educating good canary slug
era A great proportion OF these
singers are sent abroad, far or near
to London, to Australia and to the
United States where one single firm
ships 100, 900 birds each year. These
canaries are the inferior birds, the
schreir, as they are called in Ger
many, on account of their notes.
The schreir, says the Popular Science
News, which are bought for from 20
to so cents in the Harz, are sold for
So, SO or 81 in America The best
birds are kept in Germany, where
they are called hohlroller. A good
hohlroller cannot be had under IS or
$40 lin the Harzl, and $40 and S25
are no unusual prices But such birds
are certainly splendid singers. The
Germans have quite number of
words, each of which applies to diff
ferent sort of tune. or information;
the heulrolle is in minor key; king
erolle applies to silver tones; koller
to warbling which reminds of the
muimur Of water, gulchrolle is SIM
liar to the nightingale'ss notes, and
one may say that every detail Of the
canary's song has been named, and
that for every one there is standard
OF perfection which the expert fancier
knows perfectly we'll. The song Of all
canaries is not exactly similar; each
race has its special points, and while
the one is great on heurolle, for in
stance, it is weak On gulchrolle,
while the case is reversed with an
other race.
OF course, singing is natural fea-
ture with canaries, but the influence
OF the education is considerable.
The educational curriculum begins in
May for the young canaries, and they
are, as soon as possible, separated
from their parents. Education is all
in this: Keep the young bird from
hearing any but excellent singers.
Some fifteen or twenty young cana
ries are put in one cage With an older
bird. an especially good singer and
he teaches them the elements; they
try to initiate him, and hence comes
his beneficial influence. In August
each of the young birds is put in a
small cage and kept in the immedi-
ate vicinity of he cage of the teacher.
At this time the fanc;er tries to
gather some idea of the progress
achieved and of the aptitude of the
different birds. The best are put in
the nearest vicinity of the teacher.
In order to prevent the young birds
from getting disturbed their cages
are wrapped with cloth so as to pre-
vent them from seeing what is going
on around them, and in order to en-
courage singing the cages are gen.
orally shaped in form of dome; this
shape intensifies the sound and the
birds are pleased in their own music
Then comes a period of great trouble
the moulting Of the professor birds.
During some ten weeks the latter re-
main entirely silent, and the young
birds are very apt to fall into bad
habits; as soon as the voice of the
professor is regained the training
goes on, of course. Some $50, 900
canaries are trained each year in the
Harz region, and OF these 200, 900 are
sent to the United States, 20, 900 are
sent to England, 10000 are sent to
Russia and other European coun-
tries, and 1000 remain in Germany.
The latter are the upper, 10, 900" of
the canary world, the very 'pick" of
the best singers. Two firms espe-
cially (Ruhe. & and Reiche Brothers)
make it their business to export cana
ries from Germany to America.
There are number Of varieties of |
the canary. Artificial selection has
to account for many Of them, and |
while some fanciers have selected in
dividuals especially notable for their
song, others have selected birds for
their form, their color, their size.
In Germany the song is the main
point; in England the people seem to
care only for color or form; in Bel
yium shape only is considered. So
there are great differences among
canaries. xESN