19 



Ibvbri^ 1Rotc5 from tbe palace 



Bv R. Browning. 



^-vr^NOTHER Palace Show is past and gone, — with 



Jh] its lessons and disappointments, its pleasant 



I JL surprises and consequent joys — that the latter 



^ may far outweigh the former, is the wish of at 



least one, whose interest in Hybrids seem to increase 



as the difficulty of their culture become more apparent. 



Fanciers having asked on many occasions for a 

 class for Light Linnet Hybrids, I fully expected, now 

 that this wish has been granted, to find a decent class 

 of rare birds, but was sorry to see only five entries : a 

 poor encouragement, surely, to the Society which pro- 

 vided this Class for us. 



The first Class under notice— " clear, ticked, or 

 even marked," should certainly be divided, for no 

 judge can please himself — much less the exhibitors — 

 where " varieties" meet. The first and second prize 

 winners, being clear, and the Derby crack " even 

 mark," 3rd, the Sheffield Champion must fall 4th. 

 This is in accordance with some fossilized ideas, I 

 dare say, but it is not right to my way of thinking. 

 In my opinion, if the first half-dozen in a class are all 

 " clears," and good clears, they should stand in front 

 of the "even marks" be they ever so good. Or why 

 call the "clears" the highest standard of merit in 

 mules? 



The two Classes for "uneven marked or varie- 

 gated" had some splendid birds, the winners standing 

 right away for colour, size and near approach to per- 

 fection in marking, combined with condition — quite 

 right too for these classes. Some smart birds followed 

 the winners, but lost in size. 



The winning light Linnet was a splendid bird ; and 

 there was not much to choose between the 2nd and 

 4th. The Greenfinch Mules here I did not care for. 



