BREEDING EVENLY-MARKED CANARIES 



237 



is bound to occur, and a large proportion 

 of the produce be disappointing ; but with 

 care and perseverance control can be 

 obtained, and each year show in the 

 l^roduce a larger proportion of birds well 

 balanced in markings. 



The breeder must enter upon his task 

 with the idea that he is going to arrest 

 a very erratic beauty. And 



The Beauty 

 of MarKing. 



what is this beaiity ? In 

 itself it is nothing extra- 

 ordinary, being simply the dark pencilling 

 encircling the eye, a description of marking 

 common to many foreign P^'inches, and 

 which we think is perhaps the counterpart 

 of a somewhat similar feature native to 

 the wild Canary. This may or may not 

 be so ; but it is worthy of note that when 

 the domesticated bird has lost every other 

 trace of dark plumage, here it seems 

 frequently to linger, as if it were hard to 

 eradicate entirely this old family mark. 



These eye-stripes are referred to in the 

 Editor's Introduction to the " Book ot 

 Birds " from the text of Dr. Brchm. 

 " There are many birds which have stripes 

 of variously coloured feathers situated 

 above, before, and behind the eye ; while 

 others sometimes occur at the base of the 

 lower mandible. To all these distinct 

 names have been appropriated. A super- 

 ciliary stripe is situated above the eye, occu- 

 pying a position analogous to that of the 

 human eyebrow. An ordinary eye-stripe 

 is either anterior, posterior, or entire. It 

 is called anterior when it only occupies 

 the space between the eye and the bill ; 

 posterior when it commences behind the 

 eye and advances or luiites with the ear- 

 feathers ; and entire when it is both 

 posterior and anterior. A ma.villary stripe 

 commences at the base of the under 

 mandible and descends on the sides of 

 the neck." 



We referred on page 218 to tiiat form 

 of marking which is considered by the 

 fancier to be the correct thing, and which 

 may be seen in the Evenly-marked birds 

 on the coloured plates; also the Evenly- 

 marked Yorkshire on i^age 103, and also 

 to other forms not so highly pi-ized, all 



ot which find tiicir counterparts in the 

 description given above, and which a 

 reference to the illustrations on the opjio- 

 site page will make sufficiently plain. 

 The heads portrayed are not typical, but 

 serve the purpose of showing the forms of 

 marking. In Figs, a and h the anterior 

 and posterior stripes will be recognised, 

 and in Fig. c will be noticed a combination 

 of the anterior and superciliary marks, the 

 latter when it occurs really as a mark and 

 not in an exaggerated form, being usually 

 very clearly defined in outline. Figs, d and 

 e represent enlarged forms of anterior and 

 posterior marking, the latter not only ad- 

 vancing towards but uniting with the ear- 

 feathers, where it loses its character and 

 eventually breaks into an objectionable 

 patch, which sometimes almost breaks the 

 heart of the fancier. That considered the 

 most perfect eye-mark, called the " Spec- 

 tacle Mark," is shown in Fig. /. 



To fix this feature with exactness is the 

 object in view. And is this all ? No ; 

 there is a corresponding exactness in the 

 marking of the flight-feathers to be secured ; 

 but this is not a matter of so much difficulty, 

 the wings appearing to be nnich more 

 tractable and open to impression than the 

 much-coveted eye-mark of the fancier. 

 Whether or not our theory as to the pro- 

 bable origin of this mark be correct, is,, 

 perhaps, not much to our present purpose ; 

 but we might say further in its support 

 that this particular form of eye-mark, a 

 long streak from front to back, frequently 

 appears with more or less regularity of 

 form in the most heavily and irregularly 

 variegated birds, which have never in any 

 ivay been bred with a vieiv to its production, 

 and it will also occasionally appear in 

 lighter strains, in which, if any attempt 

 has been made, it has been in the direction 

 of entire obliteration. 



Evenly-marked Canaries at present are 



thus, with but a few exceptions, chance 



productions, and this is evident 



Modern fiom the statistics of our largest 

 Apathy. ° 



shows. Take the Crystal Palace, 



for instance; there were in 1877 two hundred 



and forty-three Clear and Variegated birds 



