The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-05-18
oANARIEs BY THE THOUSAND.
Seven Hundred Families in a German
Town Rear Singers.

From the Popular Science Monthly.
In small town called st. Andreasberg,
Saxony, some 200 families are entirely en-
gagged in the task of rearing and educa-
ting good canary singers. A great proper
ton of these singers are sent abroad, far
or near-to London, to Australia and to
the United States, where one single firm
ships 100000 birds each year. These
canaries are the inferior birds, the
schreir, as they are called in Germany,
on account of their notes. These schreir,
which are bought for from 20 to so cents
in the Harz, are sold for 50, So or "a
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 Har1), and $50 and S25 are no unusual
prices. But such birds are certainly
splendid singers. The Germans have
quite a number Of words, each of which
applies to different sort of tune, or in
tonation; the heulrolle is minor key :;
klingerone applies TO silver tones; koller
to warbling which reminds of the muir
muir of water; gluchrolle is similar to the
nightingale's notes, and one may say that
every detail of the Canary's song has been
named, and that for every one there is a
standard of perfection which the expert
fancier knows perfectly well. The song
OF all canaries is not exactly similar
each race has its special points, and
while the one is great on heulrolle, for
instance, 1t is weak on gluchrolle,
while the case is reversed with another
race.
OF course, singing is natural feature
with canaries, but the influence of educa-
ton is considerable. The educational cur
riculum begins In May for the young ca
naries, and they are, as soon as possible,
separated from their parents Educa-
ton Is all In this: Keep the young bird
from hearing any but excellent singers.
Some fifteen or twenty canaries are put
in one cage with an older bird an espec-
tally good singer, and he teaches them
the elements; they try TO initiate him,
and hence comes his beneficial influence
| In August each Of the younger birds is
put in a small cage and kept in the i'm
! mediate vicinity OF the cage of the
! teacher At this time the fancier tries
to gather some idea of the progress
| achieved and of the aptitude of the differ
ent birds. The best are put In the nearest
vicinityof the teacher In order to prevent
| the young birds from getting disturbed
| their cages are wrapped with cloth so as
| to prevent them from seeing what is
| going on around them and in order 10 en-
| courage singing the cages are generally
| shaped in form of n dome; this shape
/
! pleased in their own music. Then comes
a period of great trouble-the moulting
| of the professor birds. During some ten
weeks the latter remain 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 250,000 canaries are
! trained each year in the Harz region,
! and of these 100000 are sent
to the United States, $1,000 are sent
| to England, 10000 are sent to Russia and
other European countries, and 10000
remain in Germany. The latter are the
upper 10000" OF the canary world, the
very pick of the best singers. Two
firms especially (Ruhr and Reiche Bros. }
make 1t their business to export cana1ies
from Germany to America There are a
number of varieties of the canary Artih-
cial selection has to account for many of
them, and while some fanciers have SO.
lected individuals especially notable for
their song, others have selected birds for
their form, their color, their size. In Ger
many the song is the main point; in Eng
land the people seem to care only for color
or form in Belgium shape only Is consid-
cred. SO there are great differences
among canaries.