THE NORWICH CANARY 



215 



Pied Birds. 



the Green element have produced Pied 

 birds, and this immediately opens up a field 

 I'or the fancier, in the form 

 of a desire to fix this Pied 

 character in certain directions and render 

 it permanent — a task of great difficulty. 

 It is easy to account for this if we regard 

 the Pied or Variegated bird as being in a 

 transition state, somewhere on its journey 

 from a dark self-colour, with feathers dark 

 in stalk, flue, and web, towards the " Ultima 

 Thule " of the fancier — the Cle«,r bird, with 

 spotless feather and snowy white under- 

 flue. Any exactness or regularity of mark- 

 ing which may appear can, therefore, only 

 be regarded as a fleeting beauty, difficult 

 to arrest and invest with the character of 

 perpetuity, for, owing to our desire to pro- 

 duce clear birds, we take no steps to keep 

 marking under proper control. It is by 

 no means an hereditary quality, and the 

 aphorism " Like produces like " is here 

 applicable only to a very limited extent, 

 simply because the work is tedious and 

 patience on the part of the breeder short. 



It is no more unreasonable to think of 

 " setting " markings than it is to set the 

 various tyjies, provided the work is followed 

 up in a business-like manner, which up to 

 the present has not been the case. There 

 are men, however, who are always doing 

 wonders. To breed birds that are marked 

 feather for feather with mathematical 

 exactness is child's play to them : only the 

 disappointing part of the business is that 

 the world never sees them — they invariably 

 die in the nest. 



It is not an easy task under even the 

 most favourable conditions, and we ques- 

 tion whether an evenly marked bird has 

 ever been bred that possessed absolutely 

 the same number of dark feathers in each 

 of the dark marks constituting its even 

 marks. But the task of breeding a bird 

 with its markings so well balanced that 

 they appear even to the eye as the bird 

 stands in its cage is not an impossible one. 

 We shall have more to say on this when 

 dealing with the breeding of birds with 

 evenly balanced markings, commonlv called 

 " Even Marks." 



What constitutes a " Marked " bird, and 



what is the difference between it and a 



_ " Variegated " bird ? It 



TheDiffer= p . ., . r, , 



ences of *^ manliest that any Pied 



" MarKed " Canary is Variegated, and 



and "Varie= therefore what is known 



gated" Birds. i' i\t i i " u- 1 • 



as a Marked bird is 



as much a Variegated bird as any other. 

 The literal meaning must, it is evident, be 

 discarded at once, and the terms regarded as 

 technicalities, viewed in which light the 

 matter is simple enough. There are cer- 

 tain places on the body of a bird in which 

 the original dark colour seems to love to 

 linger. In some places Ave often wish it 

 would not stay, and vexing is the pertinacity 

 with which it maintains its hold. But tlie 

 last resting-place seems to be on the 

 eyes, the wings, and each side of the tail. 

 These marks most frequently ai>pear in 

 comjjany with many others, but they are 

 there : and as the objectionable patches 

 or blotches disapiJcar, largely by careful 

 breeding or in obedience to chance, the 

 eye, wing, and tail marks remain. These, 

 and these only, are technically marks, 

 and a bird is two, four, or six-marked, 

 according as he possesses each or every 

 pair. Such a bird is a " IMarked '" bird 

 proper, and any bird which is marked in 

 any other place than those indicated is a 

 " Variegated " bird, even though it possess, 

 in addition to its splashes and blotches, 

 any or all of the marks the locality of which 

 we have described, and which are the 

 acknowledged standard " marks " recog- 

 nised as such by the Fancy. A mark on 

 the top of the head, however regular in its 

 formation, or on the back (and some 

 saddles are most exquisite in shape and 

 characteristic pencilling of each individual 

 feather), is not a " mark " proper ; and 

 hence it may be accepted as an axiom that 

 a " Marked " bird must have a clean run, 

 over and under, from the beak to the 

 tail. And since dark feathers on each side 

 of the tail constitute " marks," and further, 

 since there are twelve feathers in the tail, 

 it might be demonstrated from these 

 premises that an entirely dark tail is a 

 " marked " tail. But, if admitted, it would 



