618 Canary Finch Societies. 



can hardly fail to be known to any one who has listened to 

 the nightingale (Philomela Swainson). The nightingale, the 

 reedling, the cuckoo, the gallinule, the crake, and the nightjar 

 are the nocturnal performers in our neighbourhood. — S. D. 

 W. Near Derby, May 5. 1835. 



[The Canary Finch, a Notice of Societies once extant for pro- 

 moting the Culture of it, and of their Scope. ~] — There were in 

 London, fifty years ago, several societies, consisting of gen- 

 tlemen and respectable tradesmen, who took great pleasure in 

 breeding canary birds, for the beauty of their plumage, not 

 caring about their song. I think that this practice is still con- 

 tinued. They held their show-day some time in November, 

 when prizes were awarded. They had a standard of the 

 properties wherein the beauty was deemed to consist, and the 

 bird that came nearest to it obtained the best prize : others had 

 smaller prizes. In a society called The Royals, the high- 

 est prize was thirty guineas ! Each society had a secretary, 

 and the members were ruled and governed by established 

 laws, some of which were as follows : — When any one enters 

 the society, he must purchase his birds of a member; then he 

 must inform the secretary how many pairs of birds he puts 

 together, and pay accordingly ; when his young ones are 

 hatched, he must declare them to the secretary, while they are 

 in the nest. The secretary will visit every breeder from time 

 to time, just like an exciseman, to see that he does nothing 

 unfair. This fancy was attended with some expense, for 

 there was a subscription to raise a fund to pay the prizes; 

 then there was a dinner, with other incidental expenses. I 

 will now state, as well as I can, the five primary beauties: — 

 First, the cap, for magnitude and regularity ; secondly, for 

 colour; thirdly, fair breast; fourthly, size and shape; fifthly, 

 wings and tail black. There are five secondary beauties : — 

 The bottom of the down-feathers must be black; the quill- 

 feathers in each wing must be just eighteen in number, and 

 black ; and the tail-feathers twelve, and black also; the back 

 should be finely spangled, gold-colour, and black. N. B. If 

 there was one white feather in either the wings or tail, the 

 bird was deemed a foul one. — M. Ashley. Chelsea, June 25. 

 1835. 



[An addition contributed subsequently by the same.] — 

 The fancy canary birds were bred in France and Germany 

 for a long time before they were bred in England, and, on 

 that account, they were called French and German birds, as 

 if supposing them to be aborigines of those places: but they 

 came originally from the Canary Islands ; and, although there 

 is such variety of colour in them in their cultivated state, they 



