Canary

a beautiful little finch, intermediate between the goldfinch and the linnet. It is found wild in Madeira, the Canary, and Cape Verde Islands, where it comes around houses, building nests of moss and feathers. It is a celebrated songster. Its plumage is green, or greenish-yellow in its native home, but, like other domesticated animals, it has developed into a number of varieties. Eggs, pale blue, four or five in number. The female sits thirteen days. Several broods are raised every year. The wild bird is about five inches long. The canary industry is an important one, particularly in the Harz Mountains, where unusually fine birds noted for extraordinary powers of song fetch as high as seventy-five dollars apiece. Hemp seed, canary seed, which is the seed of a grass abundant in the Canaries, millet, poppy seed, bits of green lettuce, and sugar form the best diet for this favorite cage bird. Lime is supplied by a cuttlefish bone. Healthy birds live about fifteen years. See Bird; Goldfinch

Consul Frank S. Hannah, of Magdeburg, sends the following information about the business of raising canary birds in the Harz Mountains of Germany:

The breeding and training to sing of the Harz canaries, a large number of which birds are forwarded to the United States, makes of interest the matter given herewith. The breeding and selling of canary birds in Germany, which has reached such proportions that it now controls the markets of the world, is conservatively estimated of a value of $238,000. In St. Andreasberg alone 50,000 canaries are yearly raised for export. For an exceptionally good singer and breeder at least 300 marks ($71.40) must be paid, and 100 marks ($23.80) is often paid for a good so-called "Vorsaenger," a bird used to teach the younger canaries to sing by example. The normal price for good singers varies from $2.86 to $8.57. Absolute quiet and undisturbed intimate relations exist between the breeder and his birds. Similar conditions are attained by the Magdeburg breeders. Many of the so-called "Harz canaries" which are exported to the United States are bred in the city of Magdeburg, where some of the best singers are produced.

TRAINING METHODS. The training of the young birds to sing correctly is one of the most important and laborious features of the breeder's activity. The young birds, learning by imitation for the most part, acquire bad singing as well as good, and, while it is the plan of the breeders that the birds should only hear the good singing of the "Vorsaenger," yet some of them naturally chirp and whistle in an unpleasant manner, and care must be taken that these birds are removed before the other birds have acquired the same bad habits and are rendered unsalable. The art of the breeder lies in his being able to discover the slumbering talent in the bird at an early age developing the same to its highest point of perfection in its particular line. Some birds show an especial talent for trilling, while others are remarkable for the beauty and variety of their song. The birds are divided into classes and kept in separate rooms, those having harsh and sharp voices being often placed in covered cages, where, instead of singing themselves, they are forced to listen to other good singers, through which their faults are often overcome. The better singers, after passing a certain stage where their habits are established and they do not require the close daily watching of the breeder, are taken into a room reserved for the best singers. The elementary training for the singer is generally finished by the end of November, and the singing is at its best at the beginning of January and again after the mating time.

The canary is in every way a house bird, and some people, with good intentions of giving the bird a little fresh air, make a serious mistake by hanging the bird out of the window on the first warm spring day. The bird is not used to the outside air, as he and his ancestors have been raised for centuries in the house, and the only result of this well-intended kindness is a cold which results in partial, if not entire, loss of the voice. Canaries are very sensitive to drafts, and some singers, the results of years of careful breeding and training, have been ruined by a few moments' exposure by an open window.

The exports of canaries from this district for the calendar year 1905 was $37,685, and for the calendar year 1906, $40,048.--U. S. Consular Report.