Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1901-09-04
HIGH-pRICED CANARIES.
Difficulty of Teaching Human Tunes
to Birds with Natural
Song.

said a New York bird dealer, accord
ing to that paper, "about canary that
had brought 1900 in Chicago because
it could sing Yankee Doodle fault
lessly from beginning to end, having
been taught it by cobbler. Now, if
that be true, that's the biggest price
probably that canary ever brought
in this country, and yet any authority
on birds will tell you that it's achieve
ment was not so remarka BILE.
"Other canaries have been known
to equal it, and, indeed, to surpass it
by singing a more difficult piece, and
one bird sold right here in New York
some time ago sang two pieces both as
hard to learn as Yankee Doodle The
highest price that I ever heard of an
other canary's bringing, and I've been
in the bird business IS years, was that
brought by a bird that could sing
Yankee Doodle and Hail Columbia
It was sold here in New York about
two years ago, and only brought $3.50.
Including that canary don't believe
there are five in this city now that can
get through one piece creditably, so
the Chicago eanary's performance was
unusual anyway.
tits the hardest thing in the world
to teach a bird with a good natural
song to give up the tune that nature
gave it for one Of human invention,
and it's only1the natural songsters
that can be ~taughtF< The canariessthat
most people are acquainted with only
whistle. They do. no singing as q bird
expert understands it. x>~.,s..'.~..
"All real singing canaries are i'm
ported and are expensive, There are
only a few people. who have the pa
thence to teach a canary even with the
assistance of the bird organ, which has
made bird teaching much easier than
it used to be. Before the invention of
the bird organ the only way of teach
ing a bird was by whistling to it the
same tune over and over again day in
and day out until it had picked it up
perfectly and dropped it's natural
tune. That is the way that the canary
in Chicago is said to have been taught
by the cobbler. It probably took him
several years.
ut takes about eight months with
the bird organ. That is simply NINA
ture reed organ keyed up very high,
and within certain ranges that the
bird voice has. It is often played by
electrical power. The tunes that are
played on bird organs in the attempt
to teach them to singing canaries are
Hail Columbia America The Last
Rose of Summer and Yankee Doodle
The people who make business of
teaching birds are in most cases tene-
ment dwellers and they take the birds
on contract. That is, they buy the
bird from the dealer who has the or
der for it to be taught, and when they
have finished with the birds instruc-
ton they bring it back, and sell it to
him for a price far in excess of that
they gave. Sometimes they make as
high as $50 on the deal.
II suppose there are 30 or 40 people
in New York with whom. that is bust
ness taken up as sort of side issue
to their regular occupation. Some
times they fail, of course, but they
can always dispose of the canary at
the price for which they got it from
the bird dealer.
Waking it all in all, the canary with
a natural tune which it sings well is to
most bird lovers far preferable to one
whose accomplishment is popular
ditty. The reason is that while a bird
so accomplished can sing such a tune
true it can never sing it in as sweet
tone as it did its natural song"