Page 4 Advertisements Column 1

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 1, Issue 75, 18 March 1880, Page 4

A Curious Exhibition of Singing Birds has recently been held at Turin. Only canaries were allowed to compete, and”fifty-four couples were placed in cages on a platform gaily decorated for the occasion. In the course of the afternoon the jury arrived who were to put them “ through their paces,” and the trial commenced. Some sang in time, others stood on one leg at the command of their owners, while others, again, engaged in a mimic fight on a given signal. The eventual prize winners, howeier, were those that had been taught the more useful art of adroit flattery, five birds who, whether motu proprio or from their instructors’ hints, managed to gravely salute the members of the jury, being decreed gold medals of the first-class.