THE NORWICH CANARY 



209 



The Legs. 



slightly, radiating, the lengths and arrange- 

 ment of the feathers causing a V-sha}>cd 

 indentation at the extremity. Here, as in 

 the wing, carriage is everything, tlie closed 

 fan, so neatly folded together, showing the 

 gilt edges as one feather, but which, when 

 partially spread, spoil the effect. 



The only remaining parts of the body 

 covered with feather growth are the thighs, 

 which shoidd be well-covered 

 with silky flue right down to 

 the hocks ; this flue should be short, close, 

 and compact. The legs, which Nature 

 generally makes of a ])roportionate length, 

 should be inclined to shortness rather than 

 length, as if too long they raise the bird 

 too high from the perch. On the other 

 hand, they must not be too short, or they 

 will give the bird a squatty appearance as 

 it stands on the perch ; but be such as to 

 give the bird full command of its body, 

 the muscular power of the legs and feet 

 taking a firm grip of the perch, and they 

 should be free from malformation or 

 defects of any kind, even to the toes and 

 claws. It seems scarcely necessary to 

 mention a matter of this kind : and the 

 points, as described in several printed 

 standards, " toes and nails entire and not 

 twisted awry," always seem to us super- 

 fluous. Malformations are malformations 

 wherever we find them, and it seems absurd 

 to point them out as things not to be 

 desired in a perfect specimen ; still, for the 

 enlightenment of the inex2>erienced, we have 

 done so. 



In summing up the whole under the 

 head of general appearance, we shoidd say 

 the Norwich Canary is a 

 jolly, comfortable sort of 

 bird, not of the extremely 

 graceful school, but inclined to embonpoint 

 rather than to sylph-like proportions. 

 Though not the largest variety of Canary, 

 the Norwich is a bird of good size, and 

 this property has its value when combined 

 in a marked degree with t>pe, quality, and 

 colour — a combination rarely found in very 

 large birds. Mere size alone is not suf- 

 ficient, for whilst size is a feature in 

 almost every variety, yet, where it is not 

 27 



General 



Appearance 



Size. 



fhc i^ropert}', it has to give way before 

 the particular feature sought. Hence, where 

 that feature is found to develop itself 

 jirominently in any specimens, they are 

 sure to be selected for future breeding 

 operations, whatever other minor ]iro- 

 I)erties, even though they may be desir- 

 able ones, are absent ; and thus size has, 

 no doubt, been over and over again relin- 

 quished in favour of the three sine qua non 

 ])roperties mentioned above. 



Size, however, should never be lost sight 

 of, especially in the breeding-room, though 

 we must admit that the best Norwich 

 are almost invariably of a medium 

 size, and there seems to be a point beyond 

 which it a]i]>ears impossible to go in at- 

 tempting to unite the properties aimed at in 

 the standard. Still, some breeders have 

 made strenuous efforts to do so. though with 

 only partial success, and have only desisted 

 when they found that their birds, though 

 grand and imposing, were palpably deficient 

 in the more valuable points. Other things 

 being equal, the larger of two birds wins ; 

 but in the struggle for size, it is evident 

 the chances of other things being H/!-equal 

 are greatly increased. This view of the 

 question will hardly admit of the suppo- 

 sition that size is a property which has 

 been lost and might be regained, since it 

 rather goes to show that the extreme 

 development of quality of feather and 

 colour has only been brought about by a 

 compulsory relinquishing of size to an 

 extent which almost indicated the incom- 

 ])atibility tif their co-existence in the breed. 

 Still, of recent years great progress has been 

 made in maintaining fair size combined 

 with type, quality, and colour, although 

 the grafting of size into this variety from 

 other sources brought into it many objec- 

 tionable characteristics. These caused 

 many a battle royal between the older and 

 younger breeders of the bird, even to the 

 extent of holding conferences at some of 

 the Cr\'stal Palace shows, with a view to 

 arriving at a common understanding as to 

 a standard for the breed, and following 

 upon the conference of 1890 held at the 

 Crystal Palace, great strides were made in 



