The Yale expositor., 1908-03-27
CANARY CAN TALK
REMARKABLE BIRD OWNED BY
BOSTON MAN.
Sound of a Broom Over the Floor In
cites Little songster to Speech
Has a Comparatively
Large Vocabulary.

One day in August OF last summer,
as Prof. Underwood was journeying
into the interior of New Brunswick on
72-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 ii 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 10 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 II was
while he was inside the house where
1t was owned that he heard it say:
Kiss me, sweet little Becky, dear"
The bird was hanging in it's cage out.
side the door, and for the time being
a
the fact that he was to hear talking
canary. He wondered what manner
OF bird il was that was talking thus,
and went outside to escape the noise
of the sweeping which happened to be
the occupation of his hostess for the
moment. OF course it dawned on him
Immediately that what he had heard
was the canary of his driver friend.
And then it said: Sweet bird"
Kiss me. Becky" and Kiss me,
dear" and other combinations Of the
words Il had first used. 1t did not
speak with the hard tone OF a parrot,
but in a sweetly musical way that was
almost part of its song.
The little fellow learned to talk
quite by accident He was not bred
to it, and as far as anyone knows was
born and raised in this country, of
the usual common household variety
Of canary antecedents, eight years
ago. II was while the woman who
owned him was sweeping about her
home one day that she first noticed
that he could talk. She had been in
the habit of speaking to him as she
did her homework and probably had
spoken to him more often than a city
housewife would because of the isola-
ton of the place, located as it was in
the backwoods.
And because he has learned to talk
with the broom swishing about the
floor this little canary now refuses to
talk unless some one is sweeping. All
that is necessary to start him is the
sound of a broom over the floor. 1t
seems 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 will illustrate:
The New Brunswick owner OF the
bird had brought him to Boston from
Plaster Rock, long. hard trip for
canary bird. Prof. Underwood met
him shortly after his arrival, by ac-
cident, and invited him to visit his of
fee in the Pierce building, Trinity
place. The man accepted. A broom
was secured and vigorous sweeping
commenced. Even with the paper
still covering the cage and notwith-
standing the fatigue of long jour
ney from Plaster Rock, the little fell
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 so many centu-
ries ago that the facts are shrouded
In mystery. 1t is said that an early
king of England once made royal
progress to the north of Scotland for
the purpose of hearing a canary say:
Pretty Peter" 1t has never, how
ever been claimed for any other ca
nary that has been attributed with
speech that it spoke more than two
words, and this little fellow has a
comparatively large vocabulary.