Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 1 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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Some, However, Had A
Yellow Tinge On Their Backs; Their Note Was The Same As That Of The
Tame Canary.
It is nevertheless remarked, that those which have
been taken in the island of the Great Canary, and in the islet of
Monte Clara, near Lancerota, have a louder and at the same time a
more harmonious song.
In every zone, among birds of the same
species, each flock has its peculiar note. The yellow canaries are
a variety, which has taken birth in Europe; and those we saw in
cages at Orotava and Santa Cruz had been bought at Cadiz, and in
other ports of Spain. But of all the birds of the Canary Islands,
that which has the most heart-soothing song is unknown in Europe.
It is the capirote, which no effort has succeeded in taming, so
sacred to his soul is liberty. I have stood listening in admiration
of his soft and melodious warbling, in a garden at Orotava; but I
have never seen him sufficiently near to ascertain to what family
he belongs. As to the parrots, which were supposed to have been
seen at the period of captain Cook's abode at Teneriffe, they never
existed but in the narratives of a few travellers, who have copied
from each other. Neither parrots nor monkeys inhabit the Canary
Islands; and though in the New Continent the former migrate as far
as North Carolina, I doubt whether in the Old they have ever been
met with beyond the 28th degree of north latitude.
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