254 



CANARIES, HYBRIDS, AND BRITISH BIRDS 



the red eye witli almost every lorni ol' 

 colour in the most perplexing way. which 

 would lead one to suppose that the Cinna- 

 mon must have been crossed more cxten- 

 sivelv a couple of centuries ayo than now. 

 IJrent. in liis little treatise, rel'ers to this 

 vaijiie dchnition of colours and says : "The 

 ]M-incipal diiTerence consists in the names 

 given to the colours. For instance, what 

 the translator of Hcrvieux. 1718. calls 'ash- 

 colour,' P. Boswell names flaxen, and bulT 

 is designated yellow dioi colour : thus 

 rendering the obscurity of the first trans- 

 lator doubly confounded." Sufficient, how- 

 ever, is adduced to show that the red-eyed 

 Canaries of the olden time bore a bad 

 character for stamina, rightly or wrongly, 

 and hence, imihably. the bird which we 

 imagine to have been the Cinnamon, and 

 nothing else, did not rank high in the 

 fancier's estimation. 



But what do we find the bird to-day ? 



We have three types varying as widely as 



the three stems on wliieh 



Types of ^,,g pink-eved bird has been 

 Cinnamons. ' 



grafted — viz. tin- Norwich 



Cinnamon, the Yorkshii-e Cinn.-inion, and 

 the Border Fancy Cinnamon. There are 

 also birds wholly oi- |)artly cinnamon col- 

 oured to be found in almost all varieties 

 of the Canary. It is our ])ro\incc here to 

 desci'ibc the first of these I'orms, belonging 

 as it now does pi'c-emincntly to the colour 

 .section of the r.-iniily — a section we pur])osc 

 exhausting before dealing with birds of 

 sha])e or position, or distinctive plumage. 

 We have ccrlaiidy I'efei'i'cd to the dis- 

 tinctive ])luniagc of this bird, but ha\c 

 done so moi'c with the intention of calling 

 attention to one |iccnliarily— \i/,. its coloui' 

 — th;iii with any idea of classing it with 

 those having ni.any peeidiarities. each in 

 itself a fcatni-e of consequence. 



Forty years ago it woidd havx' been o|i(n 

 to US to have ignored the bird altogethir 

 as a sepai-ate variety (for it was then very 

 seldom I'ound ])\\\x- and free from some 

 cross, mdess it was in the i)it districts in 

 the North, where-, next to a nude-breeding 

 strain of hens, the " l)mi," as it was then 

 called, was the bii'd of birds), and ha\'e 



referred only to the effects of crossing it 



with such ]iurc tril)es as we ma\' from time 



to time treat of ; but we prefer to give it 



the ])laee we consider it deserves, as it is 



now ])i'ed ])nre in almost all ])arts of the 



world (though not, we regret to say, in the 



large nundxrs we shoiUd like to see it), 



and we propose to discuss both its gencra.l 



ehaiacter, and, .so far as we can without 



departing from our plan of arrangement. 



the eiTeet jirodneed upon it by being 



crossed with other varieties, as well as the 



eifect it produces u])on them. 



Considering it, then, as a colour-bird, 



we aceei)t the modern Norwich type as a 



much iiu]irovcd foi-m of the 

 Evolution of ,,|,, ,,i,.^| j^ i^ ,,,,^ ,^^, ^.^j.^, 

 the Colour. 



nian\' years ago since it 



was coinj)aratively rare, and the winning 

 strain was su])]iosed to be in very few 

 hands. It is in too few e\en now : tlie 

 more a bird is distributed the more popular 

 it becomes. How the coloiu' had been 

 so intensified was a. matter of some specu- 

 lation, but the great family resend)lanee 

 the new l)ird bore to the Norwich variety, 

 and the mimistakable stamp of the \arie- 

 gated birds, soon indicated the fountain 

 from whence came the hot blood. The 

 ^'ariegated Cinnanioii of thai day was 

 essentially a bii-il of sha]K' and markings, 

 until some of the southern brt'i'ders, by 

 sending llnir not ion of a varic'gated bird 

 northwards, opened the eyes of the admirers 

 of colour to the fact that there were 

 other \alual)le crosses besides l)irds of the 

 position school. Many of the heavily- 

 \ariegatcd birds exhibited were Ik-us. and. 

 being claimed or sold into the North, soon 

 told a tale which, in flu' course of a few 

 years, produced the remarkable Cinnamon 

 of to-da\. capable of developing almost as 

 iMiieh colour .-IS I he Nor\\ ich bird itself. 

 I'A'ervonc who is Ic'iriied in Canary lore 

 will rcincndx-r the constei'nal ion caused 

 in the ranks ol the Cinnamon l)reeders — 

 a. constt'rnat ion almost amounting to 

 demoralisation — when .Mr. Benu'osc added 

 to his then mysteries the still greater 

 mystery of two or thi'cc Cinn;imons which 

 put all coni]iet it ion at defiance. tireat 



