CANARIES, HYBRIDS, AiND BRITISH BIRDS 



first static in the CNulution c)!' our laxoiiritc 



cage-bird Iroin the wild (rrcen ty|ie dcscrilied 



by Gesncr was the oeciir- 



Evidence rence ol" a urcv \arietv. 



from rni I 



Hervieux.* ^''^' <'<»l<»"'' ^''^y occurs as 

 a. sport ill se\( ral ol' our wild 

 birds at present, and is closely allied to 

 the well-known cinnamon S]iorts. 



or the occurrence ol' this initial jfi'cy 

 stage we have ample evidence in the most 

 interesting and instructive account of the 

 Canary by Hervieux. f One is inclined to 

 attach much importance to this authors 

 statements, as they bear evidence ol' being 

 Founded on actual experiments and are 

 not mere repetitions from other writers. 



Indeed, many of the stories concern- 

 ing the breeding of those mules, which we, 

 at the jircsent time, regard as imp()ssil)le 

 — e.g., C'hail inch-Canary. Yellow -ha nnner- 

 Canary — have probably arisen from the too 

 free intci'pretation and misundcrstandiug 

 of ner\'ieux"s statements ; for he instances 

 the above two hybrids, but only to illus- 

 trate his nomenclature : " A male Canary 

 being coupled with a female Chaflinch, the 

 young which come from them are named 

 Serin niiilds- de Pinroii.^' And the othci's 

 the same : " Canary nude of the Linnet," 

 " Canary nuile of the Yellow-hammer 

 (linuiiil)." " Canary nude of the Ciold- 

 fineh." 



IIa\ing stated this, he adtls : " Of all 

 those birds of which I am about to S|)eak, 

 those which one pairs most commonly 

 with our Canaries are the Goldfinches, male 

 and female, for the others are but seldom 

 usctl above all at ])rescnt, so that is an 

 experiment which some new fanciers {iitni- 

 veaux Cnricu.i) wish to make, to sec what 

 sorts of nudes are produced from these 

 difl'ereiit birds." 



This clearly proves that Hervieux had 

 no |)crsoual knowledge of the Yellow- 

 hammer-Canary and Challinch-Canary hy- 

 brids, which sul)sc(|iicnt writers (r.^'., J?ulTnu) 



• Triiile. (Irs Serina tlr Vftiitirir. iinr J/n-rini.i- (17i:{). 

 TliiTc ai-f vurions editions fioiii 17(1!) 17s."). Tlir oldi-st 

 inosl complete one is tliiit of 17i:i, wliicli I liave used. 



t C. I, \V. Noorduijii, of (;roriinKeii, informs me Hint 

 Hervieux was Inspector of Canary l)ieeding to Die 

 Diieliesse de Uerry. 



state, on this inadetjuatc evidence, to have 

 been bred. 



This ])rcparcs us to receive Hervieux's 

 list of varieties of the Canary in 1713 with 

 a considera))le amount of assurance that 

 we are dealing with facts which, being 

 ))ro]ierly intcr|)r(te(l. are of the utmost 

 imixirtance. 



JJut we meet in all translators, and in 

 many subsequent writers (whether pro- 

 fessed translators or not), with 

 Subsequent , . . 



^ great errors even m tnc rcn- 



trrors. ■ 



deling of the variety names. 

 For instance, the writer of the Canary 

 article in Rees' Encyclopa?dia (1819) trans- 

 lates the term " Isabelle " as " pink," and 

 gaily proceeds to speak of the ])ink Canary, 

 and also the pink Cantirv with red eyes ! 

 This translation occurs also in BulTon. 



Jk'l'ore ({noting the varieties, in order 

 to understand the nomenclature it is 

 desirable to give and carefully trtmslate 

 the following ])assage : — 



" // fdul rntuirqiicr (/ii'il // a hicn des 

 Srriiis dotil jc vicns de jimltr, i/iri onl nulrc 

 la queue hlanehe, des pluuw.s bUinehes « une 

 ciile, el souveni aux deux ailes : mais mah^re 

 celle diljerenee jxirlieuliere. les Ciirieux nc 

 leur diiuneiil jiiis lui iiiiire ikiiii, (jiie Serin 

 a queue blunehe. ou raee de Puuaelwz.'' (" It 

 is necessai'v to mention that there ai'i' 

 many Canai'ies. of which I am about to 

 S])eak. which ha\c. besides the white ttiil, 

 the feathers of one wing, and often of 

 both, white; but in s|)ite of this par- 

 ticular din'crenee, hmciers (Curienx) do 

 not give them another name than Ctuiary 

 with white tail, or N'afiegated kind.") 



It is e\ident that A'ariegation. as we 

 now know it. was just Ijcginning at that 

 time, and that it afose from the sporting 

 types of which '" (iris," " ,Iaime," and 

 " ]}lou(le ■ are mentioned. For Hervieux 

 says tiiat wc know Canaries of these tyi)es, 

 when they ai'c of the \arii'gatcd raee, as 

 htiviug : (1) Several white feathers in 

 the tail, (2) several while claws (ergol.^), 

 (;}) /(■ tluvel. 



The transitional stage of the bird is :dso 

 shown by IIcr\'ieux"s uncertainty as to 

 the kinds to iuehide uiukr the term 



