212 



CANARIES, HYBRIDS, AND BRITISH BIRDS 



nuist he regarded as purely tcehiiical. For 



exain])k', we speak of a Yellow Green 



oi' a ]}iiJT CJreeii. a Yellow C'iii- 



Colour 



iiamoii or a UiifT Cinnamon. 



Terms. 



when it is patent neither of 



these colours can be yellow or bnlf in 

 reality : and the words, therefore, taken 

 in their oeneral application, are teehni- 

 calities. The explanation is simjile. What- 

 ever be the body-eolour of a Canary, 

 whether it be literally yellow, or green, or 

 cinnamon, or whether it be in a Lizard 

 or even a dark Self-coloured Canary hybrid, 

 it has two forms in which it manifests 

 itself. One is liright and. for want of a 

 better word, we will say luminous, ])olished, 

 and glittering : the other, dull and flat, and 

 is by eomjtarison what frosted silver or dead 

 gold is to the })urnishcd metal. The lirsl 

 is the yellow form, and the other the bidf ; 

 and one or the other ))rescnts itself in every 

 Canary or Canary hybrid. In speaking of 

 the Norwich Canary, the terms .Toikjuc 

 and Mealy in years gone by were generally 

 adopted, and are both expressive of the 

 general character indicated. The word 

 .lonqne is originally piu'c French, and may 

 be taken to signify jonquil-cf)loured, which 

 speaks for itself. The very word " mealy "' 

 indicates a pale shade of colour. These 

 appellations ,are rarely used now in con- 

 nection willi 1 he \orwich Canary, the 

 usual terms being "yellow"" and ""hulT."" 



Having thus cleai'cd the w;i.y. we will 

 endeavour to show how the Cleai- ^'(■lll)\v 



Norwich Canar\-, to which we 

 The " 



Evolution ''•'^■'' ■•il'udcd. has Ihcu pro- 

 of the Clear duccd, and, froui our iu\csti- 



Yellow ijation of I lie subiccl. deduce 



Norwich. "^ , , 



the laws which goMiii I he 



recognised sysli-m ol' classilic-atiou .-ii d the 

 nomenclature ado|)tcd with rcg.ird lo il. 

 We remark, in Ihc lirst j)lacc. that the 

 fountain of coldiir iu the entire variety is 

 the original green. And I liis word " gieen "' 

 recfuircs some explanation, for. nrirr.-di. il 

 may turn out not to be green. That il is 

 a I'oi'm of green we thiidv is :i(lnnll((l on 

 all hands: ;ind llu- fact thai tlic corre- 

 sponding l\|»e iu some other \ariclics is 

 green, jjurc and simple, seems to supporl 



the idea. The one green, however, does 

 not eventually resolve itself into the same 

 form of yellow as the other : from the 

 pure green we get lemon-yellow, and from 

 the Norwich green we get a rich orange 

 shade. The foundation colour of our bird 

 is of a rich bronzy tone ; so nmch so that 

 whenever a bird of this type comes into 

 com])ctition with a j)ure green in a Ikiiki 

 fide Green class it is invariably passed 

 over as not being green, and such birds 

 usually run very light on the })rcast and 

 mider-part of the body, though lieh in 

 colour i)igment. Then what is it '! It 

 has always seemed to us to be no inapt 

 comparison when we say it resembles a 

 piece of gandjogc, oi" some of the deep 

 yellows in an artist's colour-box. Out- 

 wardly it shows but little indication of the 

 delicate tints lurking within, but can be 

 diluted and toned down to almost any 

 shade. So with our bird : we have e\ery 

 gradation of tint, from the semi-opaque 

 bronzy specimen, down to pure rich yellow, 

 which we can fui'ther tone down to a pale 

 straw colour. In the case of the so-called 

 " purc-grecn "" — which we have admitted to 

 be so, as much for the sake of argument 

 and illustr.-it ion as anything, as this bird 

 shows nnich black j)igmcnt on certain 

 ])arts we find the same diluting ])roeess 

 l)ossil)lc. with this dilTcrenee. thai it ends 

 ill a. lemon-yellow with a decided green 

 tinge. ca])able again of being toned doMu 

 to a greenish-white. 



These Self-coloured Norwich (Jrceiis (we 

 will adhere to Ihc name) ha\ing a dis- 

 ])ositiou li> brc.-ds or spoi'l. adviiutagc is 

 taken of I his, .-ind it is cull i\ alctl to 

 its idliuKilc issue. TIk' lii'sl sle|) in the 

 direction ol' .-ilbinism gi\'cs us the "" Heavily 

 \':iriegaled '" class, as it IS called in show 

 Language, or the "" Broken (Jreens "" of Ihe 

 breeding-room. We might also say here 

 that classes ai'e now pro\ ided at sluiws 

 e\elusi\ely for Self and Hroken CJrecns. 

 and that they arc l)red as a separate vai'iety 

 ol' Ihe Xdrwieli Ca.n.ar}'. These, willi dllicr 

 greens, will be deall with iu a, separate 

 chapter. 



I'roceediug with our Xui'wieh ;iuil Ihe 



