CHAPTER II 



HISTORY OF THE CANARY* 



BY A. RUDOLF GALLOWAY. MB.. CM.. M.A. 



THEORIES OF ORIGIN 



At the present day there is little doubt 

 that all the varieties of Canary have been 

 evolved from the Wild Canary 

 All Derived (^Seriniis Canaria), of the 

 Qt^.»^-»c Canary Islands, Madeira, and 



the Azores. t 



It is comparatively easy for us, in these 

 days of scientific progress, to come to this 

 conclusion ; but we can understand the 

 great difficulty that writers on this sub- 

 ject, well into the nineteenth century, 

 had in understanding the origin of a bird 

 which, even in the commencement of the 

 eighteenth century, had twenty-nine varie- 

 ties placed to its credit. 



It was impossible for them to believe 

 that all those could have come from one 

 ancestor, and accordingly many fanciful 

 origins were given — some, no doubt, having 

 a foundation on what was supposed to be 

 fact, but which turns out to be fallacy, 



*For permission to incorporate part of this paper, 

 I am in(iebte<l to tlie courtesy of Professor Karl 

 Pearson, editor of " Biometrika," in which (Vol. VII., 

 No. 1 and 2, July and October, 1909) it originally 

 appeared with illustrations and four colour plates, 

 being also published separately as "Canary Breeding 

 — A Practical Ana1y.sis of Records from 1891-1909," by 

 the Uniirersity Press, Cambrid,ge. 



tThe Wild Canary is regarded as a sub-species of 

 the Serin {Serinris serinus) which inhabits Central and 

 Southern Europe, and occasionally visits the British 

 Isles. 



A Fanciful 

 Theory. 



just as in the stories of the Chaffinch- Canary, 

 Yellow-hammer- Canary, and other unknown 

 hybrids of to-day. 



As an example of these false origins, 

 which may be traced from the earliest 

 writers, where sometimes the 

 mistaken fact is given, through 

 most of the later ones (who 

 usually omit the fallacious foundation), let 

 us quote from the article, " Canaria," in 

 Rees' Cj^clopa^dia, published in 1819 : — 



" These (29) varieties are not the spontane- 

 ous olTspring ot the common Canary finch, 

 but of that bird crossed with the Vcnturon and 

 Cini or Serin, two species very nearly allied to 

 the Canary finch, and both which inhabit the 

 South of Europe. 



" It is l)y this means, as well as by pairing the 

 Canary finch with tlie Goldfinch, Linnet, Yellow- 

 hammer, Chaffinch, and even the domestic 

 Sparrow, that so many varieties are produced. 

 The Canary finch proves fertile with the Siskin 

 and Goldfinch, but in this case the produce for 

 the most part proves sterile. . . . The two 

 birds with which the Canary intermingles its 

 breed the best, as already stated, are the Serin 

 or Fringilla Serinus, and Venturon or Citril, 

 Fringilla Citrinella. The Serin is a bird of 

 small size, being rather less than the Common 

 Linnet. Its upper mandible is brown, the under 

 whitish ; the plumage above brown, mixed with 

 yellowish green, beneath greenish yellow, and 

 having the sides marked with longitudinal 



