Karl Reich

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Ernst Karl Reich (1885–1970[1][a]) was a German businessman and aviculturist who kept nightingales and canaries at his aviary in Bremen. Along with Hans Duncker, he carried out breeding experiments on canaries. The first commercial gramophone records of bird songs included the songs of nightingales from his aviary. He had a nightingale sing into the horn of the recording equipment.[2]

Reich was a businessman in Bremen and ran a hardware store. He lived on Am Wall.[3]

Along with Karl Gustav Hartwig and Carl Röben, he was a founding member of the "Gesellschaft zum Schutze der heimischen Vögel" (lit.'society for the conservation of native birds') on 17 March 1914. It later became the Bremer Naturschutzgesellschaft (BNG, lit.'Bremen Nature Conservation Society').[3]

Reich made young canaries listen to and learn nightingale songs. One of his canaries bred in 1911 had a very deep voice, and he was able to breed it and produce a strain of canaries that could sing nightingale songs.[1][4]

In 1908, the oldest commercially issued gramophone record of a bird song was made, with recordings of Reich's captive nightingales. The HMV catalogue for it is, in part, "G.C.9439. Made by a captive nightingale. For the first time in the history of the Talking Machine industry, a genuine record has been obtained of a bird. The Nightingale in question is the property of Herr Carl Reich, of Berlin..."[5][6]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ Some sources have the dates as 1871–1944

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b Birkhead, Tim R.; Schulze-Hagen, Karl; Palfner, Gotz (2003). "The Colour of Birds: Hans Duncker, Pioneer Bird Geneticist". Journal für Ornithologie. 144 (3): 253–270. doi:10.1046/j.1439-0361.2003.03018.x (inactive 2024-03-16). ISSN 0021-8375.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of March 2024 (link)
  2. ^ Petri, Olga; Howell, Philip (2020-03-20). "From the Dawn Chorus to the Canary Choir: Notes on the Unnatural History of Birdsong". Humanimalia. 11 (2): 163–192. doi:10.52537/humanimalia.9457. ISSN 2151-8645. S2CID 243562745.
  3. ^ a b Reineking, Viviane (23 June 2014). "Politisierte Vogelschützer". Kreiszeitung. Archived from the original on 29 June 2023. Retrieved 29 June 2023.
  4. ^ Duncker, H. (1922). "Die Reich'sche Gesangeskreuzung (Nachtigall/Kanarienvogel) eine "erworbene" Eigenschaft: Vorläufige Mitteilung". Journal für Ornithologie (in German). 70 (4): 423–430. doi:10.1007/BF02538207. ISSN 0021-8375. S2CID 6708621.
  5. ^ Boswall, Jeffery (1963). "Recording the voices of captive birds". The Avicultural Magazine. 69: 121–127.
  6. ^ Kellogg, P. (1938). "Hunting the Songs of Vanishing Birds with a Microphone". Journal of the Society of Motion Picture Engineers. 30 (2): 201–208. doi:10.5594/J14702. ISSN 0097-5834.

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