This little bird, highly esteemed for its song, which is reared with
so much care, particularly by the fair sex, and which affords an
innocent amusement to those who are fond of the wild notes of nature,
is a native of those islands from which it takes its name. As it was
not known in Europe till the fifteenth century, no account of it is
to be met with in any of the works of the old ornithologists. Bellon,
who about the year 1555 described all the birds then known, does not
so much as mention it. At that period it was brought from the Canary
Islands. It was therefore so dear that it could be procured only by
people of fortune, and those who purchased were even often imposed
on[58]. It was called the sugar-bird, because it was said to be fond
of the sugar-cane, and that it could eat sugar in great abundance.
This circumstance seems to be very singular; for that substance is to
many birds a poison. Experiments have shown, that a pigeon to which
four drachms of sugar were given died in four hours, and that a duck
which had swallowed five drachms did not live seven hours after. It is
certain, therefore, that the power of poison is relative.
The first figure of this bird is given by Aldrovandus, but it is small
and inaccurate. That naturalist reckons the Canary bird among the
number of those which were scarce and expensive, as it was brought from
a distant country with great care and attention. The first good figure
of it is to be found in Olina[59]: it has been copied by both Johnston
and Willughby.
In the middle of the seventeenth century these birds began to be bred
in Europe, and to this the following circumstance, related by Olina,
seems to have given occasion. A vessel, which, among other commodities,
was carrying a number of Canary birds to Leghorn, was wrecked on the
coast of Italy; and these birds, being thus set at liberty, flew to
the nearest land, which was the Island of Elba, where they found the
climate so favourable, that they multiplied, and perhaps would have
become domesticated, had they not been caught in snares; for it appears
that the breed of them there has been long since destroyed. Olina says
that the breed soon degenerated; but it is probable that these Canary
birds, which were perhaps all males, did at the Island of Elba what the
European sailors do in India. By coupling with the birds of the island,
they may have produced mules. Such hybrids are described by Gesner and
other naturalists[60].
The breeding of these birds was at first attended with great
difficulty; partly because the treatment and attention they required
were not known, and partly because males chiefly, and few females, were
brought to Europe. We are told that the Spaniards once forbade the
exportation of males, that they might secure to themselves the trade
carried on in these birds, and that they ordered the bird-catchers
either to strangle the females or to set them at liberty[61]. But this
order seems to have been unnecessary; for, as the females commonly do
not sing, or are much inferior in the strength of their notes to the
males, the latter only were sought after as objects of trade. In the
like manner, as the male parrots are much superior in colour to the
females, the males are more esteemed, and more of them are brought
to Europe than of the females. It is probable, therefore, that in
our system of ornithology, many female parrots belonging to species
already well-known are considered as distinct species. It was at first
believed that those Canary birds bred in the Canary Islands were much
better singers than those reared in Europe; but this at present is
doubted[62]. In latter times various treatises have been published in
different languages, on the manner of breeding these birds, and many
people have made it a trade, by which they have acquired considerable
gain. It does no discredit to the industry of the Tyrolese that they
have carried it to the greatest extent. At Ymst there is a company
who, after the breeding season is over, send out persons to different
parts of Germany and Switzerland to purchase birds from those who breed
them. Each person brings with him commonly from three to four hundred,
which are afterwards carried for sale, not only through every part of
Germany, but also to England, Russia, and even Constantinople. About
sixteen hundred are brought every year to England; where the dealers
in them, notwithstanding the considerable expense they are at, and
after carrying them about on their backs, perhaps a hundred miles, sell
them for five shillings apiece. This trade, hitherto neglected, is now
carried on in Schwarzwalde; and at present there is a citizen here at
Göttingen, who takes with him every year to England several Canary
birds and bullfinches (_Loxia pyrrhula_), with the produce of which he
purchases such small wares as he has occasion for.
The principal food of these birds is the Canary seed, which, as is
commonly affirmed, and not improbably, was first brought, for this
purpose, from the Canary Islands to Spain, and thence dispersed all
over Europe. Most of the old botanists, however, are of opinion that
the plant which produces it is the same as that called _Phalaris_ by
Dioscorides[63]. Should this be true, it will follow that this kind
of grass must have grown wild in other places besides the island it
takes its name from; which is not improbable. But those who read the
different descriptions which the ancients have given of _Phalaris_,
will, in my opinion, observe that they may be equally applied to more
plants; and Pliny seems to have used this name for more than one
species of grass[64].
However this may be, it is certain that this seed, when it was used
as food for these birds, began to be cultivated first in Spain,
and afterwards in the southern parts of France. At present it is
cultivated in various parts, and forms no inconsiderable branch of
trade, particularly in the island of Sicily, where the plant is called
_Scagliuola_, or _Scaghiola_. The seed is sold principally to the
French and the Genoese. In England, the industrious inhabitants of the
Isle of Thanet, particularly those around Margate and Sandwich, gain
considerably by this article, as they can easily transport it to London
by water.
That this plant might be cultivated with little trouble in Germany, is
shown by the yearly experience of those who raise it in their gardens,
and by its having become so naturalized in some parts of Hesse, that it
propagates by seed of itself in the fields. The use of the seed might
also be extended, for it yields a good meal; but the grains are not
easily freed from the husks.
I shall here take occasion to remark, that Savary[65] has been guilty
of an error, when he says that archil is cultivated in the Canary
Islands in order to be sold as food for Canary birds. One may easily
perceive that this mistake has arisen from his confounding that
lichen used for dyeing with this kind of grass; and I should not have
considered it worth notice, had it not been copied into Ludovici’s
Dictionary of Trade, from which, perhaps, it may be copied into the
works of others.