ATTRACTIVE QUALITIES.--The plumage, pretty form, and docility, the charming familiarity which disposes it to nestle without fear or reserve beside us, as well as its melodious song, have long introduced the canary to all classes of society. Always before our eyes, the object of the most assiduous care, and constant attention, it has afforded a thousand occasions for studying its character, or rather the character and dispositions of the different individuals of its species. It has been discovered that among them, as among quadrupeds, and even man, some individuals are gay and others melancholy; some quarrelsome, others mild; some intelligent, others stupid; some with quick memories, others lazy; some greedy, others frugal; some petulant, others gentle; some ardent, others cold.
Its singing, as strong as varied, continues uninterrupted during the year, excepting at the time of moulting, and even this exception is not general. There are some individuals which sing also during the night[58].
Those which introduce into their melody some passages of the nightingale's song are the most esteemed of all canaries; they are called Tyrolean canaries, because they are considered natives of the Tyrol, where they breed many of these birds. The second are the English canaries, which imitate the song of the wood-lark. But in Thuringia the preference is generally given to those which, instead of a succession of noisy bursts, know how, with a silvery sonorous voice, to descend regularly through all the tones of the octave, introducing from time to time the sound of a trumpet. There are some males which, especially in the pairing season, sing with so much strength and ardour that they burst the delicate vessels of the lungs, and die suddenly.
The female, particularly in the spring, sings also, but only a few unconnected and unmusical sounds. Old ones which have done breeding often sing in this way at all seasons.
Canaries are particularly remarkable for quickness and correctness of ear, for the great ease with which they exactly repeat musical sounds, and for their excellent memory. Not only do they imitate all the birds in whose neighbourhood they have been placed when young[59], mixing agreeably these songs with their own, whence have arisen those beautiful varieties which each family transmits to its descendants; but they also learn to repeat correctly two or three airs of a flute or bird-organ, and even to pronounce distinctly some short words. Females also have been known to perform airs which they had been taught.