TRAINED BIRD SOLOISTS.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 54, 27 November 1907, Page 3

TRAINED BIRD SOLOISTS.

An amusing item, given at a concert got up,recently by throe girls in ono of the suburbs of Sydney, was greatly applauded (says an Australian paper), and it has sinco started girls on a. new industry—that of training birds for concert-singing. "The Laughing Jackass Song" was rendered by a girl, assisted by her own trained "kook'ooburra," who gavo several solo passages of his own in his native tongue. The girl first noticed her pot's inclination for music when doing her daily practice ! < on tho piano, when tho laughing jackass would sit. on a tree closo to the window, and between the intervals utter "his own melodious note." I'a.rrots, canaries, and cockatoos have all been found amenable to musical sounds, and a six months' training with overy-day practice will enable artists to give a ''birds' concert." "Tho Parrots' Chorus" and "Tho Canaries' Good Night" are two items being sot to music for tho purpose. "My Ivookooburra, trained in my own back yard," said tho girl owner, introducing the biro to tho audience, and this typical Australian bird kept his oyes unblinkingly upon bin mistress waiting "to let go." Girls who can whistle can train .the bird's delicate ear to almost every variety of sound and. pitch, and obtain tho best results. Even magpies taught in this way will prove 411 attraction of a purely original character.

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