The Marion daily mirror. (Marion, Ohio) 1892-1912, 1908-03-18
CANARY CAN TALK
REMARKABLE BIRD OWNED BY
BOSTON MAN.
Sound OF Broom over the Floor. In
cites Little sonsster to Speech
Has Comparatively
Large Vocabulary.

Large VOCABULARY.
One day in August of last summer,
as Prof Underwood was journeying
into the interior of New Brunswick on
T2.mile drive with Mrs Underwood,
the native driver who was with him
told tale OF canary who could talk,
says the Boston Transcript. This
amused Prof Underwood, for he
thought It another of the stories of
the same nature which are found to
be untrue when traced to their
source.
The driver, however, was not re.
peating rumors that he had heard, but
stating facts, for the canary he re.
ferred TO was the property of his aunt
To prove the truth of what he had
said he offered to show the bird.
Prof. Underwood says of his first
hearing the canary talk, that it was
while he was inside the house where
It was owned that he heard It say;
Kiss me, sweet little Becky, dear"
The bird was hanging in its cage out.
side the door, and for the time being
Prof. Underwood had forgotten about
the fact that he was to hear talking
canary He wondered what manner
of bird II was that was talking thus.
sud went outside to escape the noise
of the sweeping which happened to be
the occupation of his hostess for the
moment. OF course, II dawned on him
Immediately that what he had heard
was the canary Of his driver friend.
And then II said: Sweet Bird
kiss ..ie, Becky" and kiss me,
dear" and other combinations of the
words II had first used Il did not
speak with the hard tone of a parrot,
but In sweetly musical way that was
| almost a part Of its song
The little fellow learned to talk
quite by accident. lie was not bred
/ to Il, and as far as anyone knows was
born and raised in this country, of
the usual common household variety
Of canary anteccdents, eight years
ago II was while the woman who
owned him was sweeping about her
| homo enc day that she first noticed
that he could talk. She had been In
| the habit Of speaking to him as she
did her housework aud probably had
| spoken 60 him more often than a city
housewife would because CT the isoa.
tion Of tie place. located MS it was In
| the backwoods.
And because ne has learned to talk
With the broom swishing about the
! !loor this little canary now refuses to
| talk unless fome one Is sweeping All
| that is necessary to start him is the
| sound of broom over the floor. II
| Goems to arouse such thrills in his
little heart that he just cannot help
| talking. And he does so even under
The most trying conditions, as the
| following viii Illustrates:
The New Brunswick owner of the
bird had brought him to Boston from
Plaster Rock, . long, hard trip for a
canary biyd. Prof. Underwood met
him shortly after his arrival, by ac.
| ldent, and invited him TO visit his of,
Ace in the Pierce building. Trinity
Jlace. The man accepted A broom
! was secured aud a vigorous sweeping
commenced. Even with the paper
stlll covering the cage and notwlth.
standing the latigne of a long jour.
| ney from Plaster Rock, the little fel.
low Immediately started to talk in
his musical voice.
Only one other instance Of a canary
which has had the power OF speech
Is given much credence by naturalists
and that bird lived 80 many centu-
lies ago that the facts are shrouded
in mystery. 1t Is said that an early
itng of England once made a royal
progress to the north of Scotland for
the purpose of hearing canary say
Pretty Peter" II has never, how
over been claimed for any other ca
nary that has been attributed with
speech that II spoke more than two
words. and this little fellow has a
comparatively large vocabulary