PEDIGREE OR LINE BREEDING 



205 



there will be the very fii-st season some 

 equally well-spangled young hens. If the 

 projjortion is good, it shows that the cocks, 

 too, are of good breeding quality, and 

 have ' hit ' well with the strain of the 

 hens, in which case they shoidd be kept. 

 And so the first season's breeding comes to 

 to an end. 



" Next year's breeding will show a 

 marked advance, the proportion of well- 

 spangled birds being very good — so good, 

 that out of them, if ordinary judgment has 

 been employed, we can now have little 

 difficulty in finding the few we want to 

 breed which are also good in caps and 

 other matters." And here will be seen the 

 advantage of the plan we have insisted on, 

 of fixing upon the one most important 

 point, whatever that may be, and never 

 dropping it. If this plan has been followed 

 it will be found that we have now — 

 imperfectly, it is true, but still to a very 

 great extent — made it certain already in 

 our new " strain," and can to a moderate 

 degree, without dropping it, already begin 

 to select our birds for other points as well. 



The next season the proportion of purely- 

 spangled birds will be very large indeed 

 (we will suppose only the perfectly-spangled 

 to be bred from), and there will probably 

 be no difficulty whatever in selecting those 

 which show also other points required. 

 Every variety has some point or points 

 Avhich demand long breeding and patience 

 to acquire. Some points are obtained with 

 comparative ease, and are readily trans- 

 mitted even from parents, so that a single 

 mating will produce them in a fair pro- 

 portion of young, others will need years of 

 work, and one unhappy mating may upset 

 much work already done. 



Comparing many breeds or varieties, we 

 have foimd that about four points will in 

 nearly all of them cover those 

 which cause real difficulty 

 and require serious breeding for, those 

 beyond four giving little anxiety or trouble. 

 Let us consider these, therefore, and suj)- 

 pose that, taking all things into account, 

 we have determnied their order in difficulty 



Four Points. 



and value. In perfecting our bird by 

 selection a difficult point must never be 

 sacrificed to obtain a minor though neces- 

 sary point, and on these should attention 

 first be fixed and kej)t there, gradually 

 giving attention to others, not bi/ tarns, 

 but just as fast, and no faster, than the 

 increased number of birds (good in the 

 first ]ioint and therefore admissible to breed 

 from) enables selection for the second and 

 subsequent points to be made. One thing, 

 however, is obvious. The best birds, fro7n 

 the breeding point of vieiv, must never be 

 sold, but kept for the breeding room ; for 

 a man cannot reasonably be expected to 

 make any marked progress who is con- 

 stantly selling what represents nearly all 

 the ground he has gained, as the breeding 

 which is to succeed in producing valuable 

 birds consists in throwing all these tend- 

 encies into one desired direction, so that 

 the influence of remote ancestors, of great- 

 grandparents and grandparents, as well 

 as of the parents, combine toward the 

 desired point. And as Darwin rightly 

 says : " The key is man's power of accumu- 

 lative selection. Nature gives successive 

 variations ; man adds them up in certain 

 directions useful to him. In this sense he 

 may be said to make for himself useful 

 breeds. Over all these causes of change I 

 am convinced that the accumidative action 

 of selection, whether applied methodically 

 and more quickly, or vuiconsciously and 

 more slowly but more efficiently, is by far 

 the predominant power." 



In commencing to breed with a view to 

 producing the highest class of canary, of 

 whatever breed or variety. 

 Clearness ^^.^ cannot impress too dis- 

 of Purpose . . ., ., • 1 c n 



Necessary, tmctly upon the mmd of the 



beginner the imi>ortance of 

 having a clear notion of what he intends 

 doing, and of following out some definite 

 plan such as we have fully explained. That 

 success can be achieved by such a process 

 can be amply proved by a visit to our 

 exhibitions. Desultory breeding is not 

 " breeding," but only an amusement that 

 frequently goes by that name. 



