BREEDING THE NORWICH CANARY 



227 



The late I\Ir. W. A. Blakston, in writing 

 on tiie breeding of Norwichs, cited an 



excellent illustration ol' this. 

 Breeding .. q^^^ ^j y^^ ^^^^^ birds," Said 

 Clears. 



he, " of this kind we ever sa^v 



was a Clear Yellow exhibited by ]\Ir. 

 Edward Bemrose, of Derby ; it was in the 

 last show held in the Tropical Department 

 at the Crystal Palace, and was claimed by 

 Mr. John Young, of Sunderland. In those 

 days we, perhaps, didn't know so much 

 about Greens as we do now, but we had 

 a glinmiering of the truth. This bird was 

 paired with a Clear Buff hen. as was then 

 our wont in our endeavours to produce 

 high-class Clears ; but the produce was 

 a marked preponderance of Heavily-Varie- 

 gated birds. Among the offspring were 

 one or two Clears, which were fully up to 

 the standard of the day, and, notably, a 

 Buff. The hens were, most of them, very 

 heavily marked, some of them being only 

 slightly broken, but all could be relied upon 

 for producing first-class Clears when mated 

 with Clear cocks ; and one cock, a Varie- 

 gated Yellow, was equally reliable for 

 producing pure Clears when paired with 

 Clear hens. Clears from this strain were 

 also ]3retty sure to throw one or two birds 

 more or less marked, the balance of Green 

 blood being such that by careful mating, 

 so as not to harp too long on one string, 

 it could be diverted into certain channels 

 with a degree of certainty we never knew 

 surpassed by any strain which came rmder 

 our observation." This clearly shows the 

 value of careful selection and pairing. 



The immense number of birds of the 



variegated form which find their way into 



our exhibitions cannot be ac- 



The Use of counted for by any supposi- 

 Variegated . . . , . . , "^ / , -^ Vu 4- 

 Birds. "-'^^ that they are bred m that 



direction from any desire to 

 produce the infinite variety of marking 

 which we find in them, for the sake of any 

 value which may attach to them on account 

 of such irregular variegation. They are in 

 reality the exhibition of so many inter- 

 mediate links in the long chain, the value 

 of each link being in exact proportion' to 

 its known tendency towards jJi'ogression 



or retrogression ; and all goes to prove 

 the existence of a recognised system by 

 which the peerless beauty of the Clear 

 bird is developed. 



It is important, then, in selecting breed- 

 ing-stock, that the Variegated birds chosen 

 should be taken from the upper branches 

 of the tree and not from too near the root ; 

 and so long as they are of known jDedigree, 

 and can be relied on not to play unaccount- 

 able pranks as regards colour, it is not 

 of much moment on which side, male or 

 female, the green is found present or latent 

 — for it is possible that it may not always 

 be present, though very near the siu'face. 

 Some breeders prefer to pair Variegated 

 cocks with Clear hens, and others the 

 reverse ; but in actual practice it is foimd 

 necessary to mate them, not as one Avould 

 wish, but as they are to be obtained ; for 

 with all the care in the world they cannot 

 be bred to order, though the experienced 

 breeder can, with a fair amount of certainty, 

 anticipate what he will get from a carefully 

 selected pair of birds. Some breeders 

 recommend the pairing of two Variegated 

 birds together ; but this defeats our object 

 of transferring the rich colour of the dark 

 to the surface of the Clear. We could 

 understand such pairing if our object were 

 to breed a few dark-coloured stock birds 

 or Greens, and it should only be adopted 

 in such a case. 



A breeder who wishes to work with his 

 own stock must take it as he finds it. 

 JMuch has been said about the 

 Risks of danger attending the introducing 

 Blood " ^^ fresh blood into a strain 

 through the admixture of blood 

 of which the constituent parts are not 

 known ; and a breeder who may find 

 himself short of Clear or Variegated cocks 

 or hens, may have some of his carefully- 

 arranged measures completely uj^set by 

 the introduction of a foreign cross which 

 appears to be what it is not — viz. an 

 established Clear, when it may in reality 

 be nothing more than the chance issue of 

 an obstinate dark sti'ain. Whilst this risk 

 is not very great, there are few good birds 

 that are not the result of previous careful 



