Harz Roller

Harzer Roller is the name of the Upper Harz, first by William Trute, bred breed of canary. The Kanarienvogelzucht in the Upper Harz between Lautenthal and St. Andrew Berg became famous in Europe notoriety in the mid-19th century. Thus led, among other things, the wholesaler C. Reiche in the years 1882-1883 large amounts of these songbirds in all the world, including 122,000 in New York City, 10,550 to South America, 5,600 to Australia, 3000 to South Africa, 12,000 in Germany and 30,000 in the European abroad. Since 2001 there has been a Harz Roller Museum in Sankt Andreas Berg.

In patient breeding this breed was brought to be very pleasantly melodic, varied and sing with seemingly closed beak. The song of a Harzer Rollers consists in the main of four stanzas ( tours): Hollow role Knorre, pipe and hollow bell. The hollow roller is the main element. Here, the bird is a "r" in conjunction with the rolling sings vocals " u ", " o" or "u ", which then, for example, as " rururu " sounds. To Knorre the singer goes into the bass. Particularly appreciated is here a deep " krruruurru ". The hollow ringing is caused by a "l" in connection with the vowels. The bird sings " lülülü " or " lololo " to the deep " lululu " in a slightly remote form. At the whistle, there are clearly remote soft single notes, in conjunction with the "d", which sounds like " you " or " dou ", often at the end of a concert. Uses the bird in his song a " li", so it's called a bell or " ri " a bell role. There are also so-called side trips: hen, Schockel and water tour.

Birds as a warning device in the mine

The breeding and sale of these popular Kanarienvogelrasse was just like the construction of associated cages for the miners an important sideline. Especially in the second half of the 19th century was booming business with the canaries. Contrary to popular legend, the breeding birds were not used in the mine as an oxygen indicator, because they were too valuable for that. The Harz miners used wild caught birds for this purpose.