THE SONG OF THE WILD CANARY.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—In the Spectator of October 4th is an attiele on " Talking Birds," in which I was surprised to read the following statement :—" The song of our canaries, which in their own country is so poor that they have been said not to sing at all, has been learnt entirely from the goldfinches and linnets which have shared their cages." Having lived in Madeira and the Canary Islands some years, I must beg to deny emphatically such a libel on this native songster. The wild green canary (Serinus Canarius), which is the original stock from which the yellow cage-bird is derived, the yellow colour being only the result of domestication, is here in its native haunts, and a more beautiful song than it possesses I
cannot imagine. They build largely in our own garden, and I can assure the writer of your article that if he were trans- ported to Madeira early one spring morning, and heard the chorus of exquisite song rising from the little throats of the wild canaries, he would never again say theirs was merely a borrowed one. I.might go further and affirm that those who have only heard the yellow canary do not know the mellow sweetness of the true canary's song. The wild one has a most soft and warbling note, and is quite free from the penetrating shrillness of the cage-bird, which to many sensitive people is most trying.—I am, Sir, &c.,
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