Canary birds : how to breed for profit or pleasure an exhaustive treatise on all the different breeds with chapters on pairing, colour, breeding, feeding cages, nesting, egg food, sanitary measures, diseases to which the canary bird is subject, &c., &c / by Karl Russ ; authorised translation.

  • Russ, Karl.
Date:
[1880?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Canary birds : how to breed for profit or pleasure an exhaustive treatise on all the different breeds with chapters on pairing, colour, breeding, feeding cages, nesting, egg food, sanitary measures, diseases to which the canary bird is subject, &c., &c / by Karl Russ ; authorised translation. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    shrill, but quite as frequent; all the melodies are short compared to those of the “ Hartz ’’-bird, nor have I heard any new melodies ; nevertheless, the total impression pro- duced upon me by the song of the wild-bird resulted in the conviction that the latter, in his soft, melodious organ, possesses the means of acquiring, as far as fulness of tone and a moderate length of the strophes are concerned, the song of the canary of the “ Hartz,” and this might be accomplished even in the first, but certainly in the second generation. Whether the purity and faultlessness of the son<r of the “ Hartz ’’-bird can be attained in so short a time, will depend on the circumstance whether the young brood can be removed from the old male soon enough to prevent the former from hearing the song of the latter even during the first four weeks of its existence. The type of the song of the single wild-bird is that of the note of the common breed, but, although, in the main, they are concordant, yet various deviations will occur, so that the assertion that each covey has its own song, is not entirely without founda- tion. At all events there are, among the wild-birds, some which are more, and others which are less, proficient in song; the best singers are those which least frequently “ catch,” they thrill oftener, they also produce a short “rattle,” and, in this respect, they approach the song of a tolerably good “ Hartz ’’-bird. The long-drawn notes, however, of the latter’s song are never heard in the open air, nor are they emitted by the captive birds of Teneriffe. According to my opinion, the wild-bird will sing best in the localities where it is most numerously represented ; the female bird, however, will utter a few7 chirping notes even in captivity. The “luring” note of either sex is often soft and melodious like that of the tame species, but often, too, it is unpleasantly high. W. Hartwig writes : its song is that of our common breed, but the single notes are not so loud,