CHAPTER III 



HISTORY OF THE CANARY {ioiitinufd) 



The " Sport 



Origin 



Proven. 



<f*>\ 



The study of Hervieux"s most instructive 

 list, which begins with the commonest and 

 ends with the rarest, com- 

 bined with a knowledge of 

 the nature and behaviour 

 of sports in wild birds 

 generally, proves the " sport "' origin of 

 all the varieties of the Canary. 



In classes 1 to 3 

 we have the grey 

 Canary, varying in 

 the direction of frilled 

 and white feathers 

 and white feet. In 

 4 to 8 the pale type 

 (either of grey or 

 cinnamon) shows the 

 same variations, but 

 in addition a more 

 marked tendency to 

 albinism (pink-eye), 

 and towards the dif- 

 ferentiation between 



"yellow" and "buff." In 9 to 11 the 

 uniformly lemon-yellow Canary shows sim- 

 ilar plumage variations. In 12 to 15 the 

 original Lizard proclaims its cinnamon 

 descent by having pink eyes, besides the 

 plumage changes like the others. 



In Canary and Cage-bird Life for April 

 16th, 1909, Mr. L. Butterworth's lectiire to 

 the Rochdale Ornithological Club on " The 

 Lizard Canary Fancy, Past and Present," 

 is given. In it, this lemon-yellow varia- 

 tion, with its tendency to become paler, 

 is described in connection with the Lizard 

 Canary of forty years ago. At the same 

 time, the " duvet,'' or frilled variety, 

 appeared. As these statements from an 

 experienced and observant fancier are 

 important historically, I give them in full, 



premising that this lemon-yellow colour 

 in mules is well known to be due to cin- 

 namon inheritance. 



" When I first started to breed the Lizard 

 Canary there was a strain of Lizards which 

 was very plentiful in and around Rochdale, 

 known as the Lemon Lizard, or Lemon Jonque, 

 on account of tlic cap lieing a pale yellow colour, 

 somewhat the colour of 

 a lemon. In its nest 

 feathers it had a back 

 full of straight, narrow 

 rowing ; but after its 

 flrsl moult the colour of 

 its cap and the tips of 

 the small feathers were 

 of the same pale yellow 

 colour, the spangle being 

 not nearly so distinct 

 as that of the orange- 

 coloured variety. 

 Breeders, seeing that it 

 stood no chance on the 

 show bench, refused 

 to breed with it, and, 

 consequently, in a 

 years the strain died out. 



THE LONDON FANCY CANARY. 



few 



" About the same time there was another 

 strain, known as the Flat or Hollow-backed 

 Lizard. This was a class of bird with a back 

 full of large, distinct spangling, or moons, as we 

 called them. The moons were distributed all 

 over the back and not in straight, regular rows, 

 as you see them in the Lizards of to-day. This 

 class of bird had very often a split or parting 

 down the centre of the back, and as it very 

 rarely got into the money at any show, gradu- 

 ally became scarce, until it has almost met with 

 the same fate as the Lemon Jonque. I should 

 never pair two golds or two silvers together 

 without a special reason. . . . 



" I remember experimenting in this direction 

 many years ago. I paired a gold cock with a 

 gold hen, and succeeded in breeding some decent 

 young from the pair. Then I inbred with two 

 of the young ones, also both golds. The result 

 was the feathers on the young birds bred from 



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