The Winslow mail., 1899-06-15
SELECTING CANARIES.
The Best Singers Picked Out by
Men with Trained Ears.
Large Numbers Of the Birds Shipped
to This Country f~sTa Germany
Each Year How They
Are Handled.

Whoever has tried to buy a canary
knows how hard it is to pick a good
singer. There are, however, men in this
country who are not only able to dis
tinruish between the birds that sing
and those that do not, but who guided
by their ear alone, can pick and classify
canaries according to quality andrange
of voice, even when hundreds of cana
ries are singing together.
In an East side establishment in New
York, where on an average 1900 cana
ries are kept the year round, two of
these experts sit daily in frontof huge
stack of little willow cages, in which
are more than 750 birds sometimes.
With wonderful ease, and most thor
oughly and expeditiously, did the ex-
perts conduct this competitive exam
ination. First they picked out the good
singers, and put distinctive mark on
the cage of each of them; hen, with the
use of other marks, they separated them
into distinct classes, according to the
quality and style of their song. The
price of these good singers varies, many
not being worth more than three dol
lars each at wholesale, and a few, on
the other hand, selling as high as $50
each.
In most large bird stores there is an
exercise room in which are hundreds Of
loose canaries. After long confinement
the birds must have chance to use
their wings, or, as one of the bird men
says: "Dese leetle birds must go leetle
free. Und so we ledt dem shtay in desc
leetle room sometimes five or six
weeks"
The item of food where many birds
are kept, is an important one. In the
East side establishments GEO bags, or
nearly 10000 pounds, of rape seed
alone are needed each year. This repre-
sents an expense of over $4,000 for one
kind of food. No American rape seediis
used, because it is said to be lacking in
oil.
Hartz mountain canaries are spe-
cialty of this establishment, and the
proprietor says that nearly all the birds
are brought to Alfeldt from little towns
and hamlets scattered over the noun
tains, and thence shipped to New York.
Few people have any idea of the ex-
tent of the importation of canaries into
this country, and, perhaps, fewer still
are aware that nine-tenths OF the bust
ness is done through the port CT New
York. The shipping season begins in
July and continues until April, and it is
estimated that during the present sea-
son about 100000 birds will be imported
of which 130, 600 will be males and 10000
females, Practically all these birds will
come from Germany, although it is true
that some thousands of special breeds
will come from England and Holland
The most satisfactory bird is the
Hartz mountain canary. They are
hardy, surprising the American-bred
canaries in this respect. The natural
song of the Hartz mountain canary is
varied by the occasional notes of the
nightingale or other trained singers.
Some of the best German breeders keep
nightingale or trained canary in
the room to which the small birds are
sent, and this improves the voice of the
young birds greatly.
An old German named Wolfschlag
teaches canaries to sing by the use of a
machine of his own invention, which
pumps air through a series of tubes sur
rounded by water. In this way notes
are produced which are extremely like
those of the best canaries. He has been
engaged in this business for years and
has an established trade. some of his
machine taught birds selling for as
much as $50. Most experts and bird
fanciers, however, think that the nat
ural method is the only sure way in
which a canary can be taught.
Among the breeds of canaries which
are importedare the Belgian, the Dutch
and several varieties of English birds,
including the Norwich, the Manchester
copy, the London fancy, the gold and
silver spangled Lizard canary and the
Scotch fancy canary. The Norwich
canary is not extensively imported, but
is a general fayorite in England. It
has been bred in the city of Norwich
for more than a hundred years, and
is rernar arl>atIe for its brilliant Io1urnage
of reddish yellow Tt is generally con-