All About Your Canary

“Frenchy” the famous Canary Pirate
PUBLISHED BY THE R. T. FRENCH COMPANY ROCHESTER 9, NEW YORK
At the turn of the century, the food business was in the “cracker barrel” stage. Packaged foods were just beginning to make their appearance in American grocery stores. It was during this period that Mr. George J. French developed the idea of marketing bird seed in packages.
Mr. French, then President of The R. T. French Company, had raised caged birds for many years as a hobby, and he knew that a clean, dependable packaged bird food would be welcomed by canary lovers. The new product was an immediate success. The sale of branded bird seed in packages brought Mr. French an increasing flood of letters from bird owners which he carefully answered himself.
In 1925, using the pen name “Bird,” he wrote the original French’s Bird Book. As this latest version, “All About Your Canary,” is written, French’s Bird Seed and Biscuit—the pioneer in its field—is the largest selling bird seed in America.
Copyright 1951 by THE R. T. FRENCH COMPANY Lithographed in U.S.A.
Lying off the northwest coast of Africa are two small groups of islands, the Canary Islands and the Islands of Madeira. These tiny specks of land are the habitat of the little green finch, or wild canary.
The song of these canaries so appealed to sailors who visited the islands that quantities of the colorful birds were captured and carried back to Europe. By the early 16th century, these song birds were prized possessions of many noblemen.
Today the sweet song of the canary is enjoyed all over the world. In the patient hands of breeders, the canary has evolved into many forms and colors. By 1900 there were twenty-seven distinct varieties and types of canary birds.
In Germany there is the famous Roller singing bird. There is also the peculiar Dutch bird with all its feathers turned the wrong way, the round-shouldered Belgian and Scotch Fancies, and the beautiful English birds—the Lancashire Coppy with its great crest, the Yorkshire, the Norwich, and the Border Fancy. Some, like the London Fancy which had exquisite orange and black markings on the head and tail, unfortunately are already extinct.