LEON Y CASTILLO, 5,
TELDE,
GRAN CANARIA.
_15 January, 1906._
I have your second letter, not your first. The first may be lying in
the Hotel at Las Palmas and I must attempt to get it. This year it
is difficult to communicate with the "ciudad" for there has been a
prolonged drought and the roads--but did you ever try cycling across
a ploughed field? Moreover people here are lazy and casual and the
semi-hispanised English people who keep the English hotels are perhaps
more casual than the true Jack Spaniards. Well, I must get that letter,
for which I thank in advance, even if it costs me a day's labour and
some strong language. Meanwhile I will talk of canary birds. The birds
are named after our islands. What our islands are named after, nobody,
so I am told, knows for certain. Whether the birds are found wild in
all the seven islands I don't know. Certainly there are many in Gran
Canaria. Also there are many in Madeira. The wild canary is, I believe,
always a dusky little chap, brown and green. The sulphur coloured or
canary-coloured canary is, I am told, a work of art, and I have heard
say that he was made at Norwich: by "made" of course I mean bred by
human selection. The most highly priced canaries are, I believe, made
in Germany. I have known two guineas asked for a "Hartz Mountain
Canary": it sang _pp._ like a very sweet musical box. On the other
hand, wild canaries are cheap here, especially if you go up country
and buy of the boys who catch them. My wife quotes as a fair range of
price half a peseta to a peseta and a half. The peseta ought to be
equivalent to the franc but is much depreciated. So let us say that a
bird can be had for a shilling. My wife adds that she would be very
happy to import birds for your daughter--and this is not a civil phrase
but gospel truth: she is never happier than when she is acquiring pets
as principal or agent:--so it is, and I can't help it. I like the
song of these dusky birds: it is not nearly so piercing as that of
the Norwich variety. I daresay that I have told you some untruths in
this ornithological excursus--but at any rate I make no mistake about
the price of wild birds or about my wife's willingness--I might say
eagerness--to transact business.