At a fortnight old, the male may be dis-CT' tinguished from the female by the more connected character of his song. If a young bird is to be taught to whistle, it should now be separated from its comrades and confined in a small wire cage, which should be covered, at first, with a linen cloth, and afterwards with some thicker material. A short air should then be whistled, or played on a flute or bird-organ, within his hearing five or six times a day, and repeated on each occasion half a dozen times. "My idea is to play to them while they are at their breakfast, and after they have done eating - they are always then much more disposed to listen. After the bath, again, there is a grand twittering time, while they are pluming themselves, and at bedtime, when there is always an amazing fuss; though I doubt whether playing to them then would do any good."

The earlier the birds are taken from the nest, the freer their song will be from notes that are not wanted. The German trainers blow on the bird's feathers, and look cross and scold it when it sings a wrong note, rewarding with hempseed, or some such dainty, when it performs successfully. It takes several months to learn a tune perfectly. As a general rule, those tunes which have a sort of running scale will be found the easiest to learn. It is a fact, that the song of birds is not, strictly speaking, natural, but acquired at the very earliest age, from the notes of the parent singing near the nest; just as the child of an American is taught by his parents, and would know nothing of his father's native tongue if he heard only the French language spoken. The knowledge of this fact should be a great assistance in teaching birds to sing artificial songs. A bird, accustomed to hearing the mewing of a cat, forgot his own melodies and mewed also. He was cured by being taken to a neighbor's, and his cage hung near another bird who was a sweet songster. The very general introduction into an acquired tune of a few of the bird's own notes, is owing to its having been taken into training too far on in its life ; even at four or five days old, when the nestlings cannot see, it appears they can remember the sound of the parent's voice ; probably they listen to that alone, as at that early age they do not catch the notes of other birds, though many may be chirping around them.

In teaching young birds to sing, school cages are useful; either a row of the little six-inch square cages, or else a long narrow box, wired in front, and divided into compartments. One really good singing bird may be hung overhead, and will teach them all. They will learn whatever it is they may hear, and so we had better provide them with a good instructor. It is only in rare cases that a bird will sing while moulting, and after the first and second moulting season the bird is obliged to re-learn its song, and thus learns to intermix the notes of other birds. Instances have been known in which canaries have been taught to repeat short words distinctly, to distinguish names, colors, letters, and numbers, and to perform certain actions at the word of command. A female, in the possession of a person named Jeantot, selected from an alphabet, and placed in order, the letters of certain words; added, subtracted, and multiplied in German, and indicated, by means of numbers, the exact time of a watch. He had also three males with him, which were able to select letters and numbers which were named. Hunger had been the chief means used in the education of all; a species of cruelty without any excuse, and which should be wholly condemned.

Many birds are so self-willed as never to sing except they can display their vocal powers alone, while the song of others is always soft and low, except when excited to rivalry by hearing the performance of a neighbor. It is important to give them their allotted portion of food every day; for if too large a supply is given them at once, the result is that they pick out the best first, and leave the rest for another day, which impairs their vocal powers.

A bird of two or three years old was taught to sing a national air very sweetly by some children who had a little bird-organ, and they played the tune on every occasion possible.