THE CRESTED CANARY 



277 



thing easily accounted for on the hypothesis 

 tiiat the recognised form of Crest has much 

 of the Plainhead in it, and we have seen 

 more or less disturbance of the usual type, 

 but never anything remotely approaching 

 baldness — in fact, always the reverse. And 

 further, among the thousands of crests we 

 have seen of all conceivable styles, bred, 

 doubtless, in all sorts of ways from Crest 

 and Plainhead, and, for want of better 

 knowledge, frequently enough from re- 

 peated successions of double Crests, we 

 never remember seeing a head so bald as 



tills defect disa})pears from the offspring if 

 such birds are paired to Crestbreds. 



Dealing with general principles, we say, 

 as a second thing to be observed, that 

 whereas in breeding Norwich Plainheads 

 two Yellows are sometimes paired to 

 obtain colour even at a probable sacrifice 

 of featlicr, so, in breeding for crest, double 

 Buffs are paired to get or thicken the feather 

 at the expense of colour, and the latter 

 practice has been carried on to too great an 

 extent, much to the detriment of the colour 

 and quality of feather of Crests, to say 



Fig. 00 



big. gi 



Fig. 92 



Fig- 93 



Fig. 94 



to lead us for a moment to infer that it 

 arose from any such method of pairing as 

 we refer to. We therefore unhesitatingly 

 aflirm that to pair two Crests is a .sure way 

 to obtain, not baldness, but excess of 

 feather, which can afterwards be regulated 

 and brought into .shape by pairing back to 

 Crestbreds with a nice smooth flow of feather 

 over the head. One thing we have proved 

 — and we know that many other breeders 

 have experienced the same thing — is that 

 double-cresting, if repeated to any extent, 

 has a tendency to produce running ulcers at 

 the back of the head or over the nostrils : but 



nothing of having rendered Yellow-Crests 

 obsolete, although most useful for show 

 and breeding purposes. Its judicious use 

 improves the colour of the crest and body 

 feather, giving a finish to both which 

 double buffing can never produce. AVe 

 know it is next to impossible to breed a 

 heavy crest from a thinly feathered bird, 

 and the nature of the work to be accom- 

 plished will therefore suggest a reason for 

 frequent departure from the line of pro- 

 cedure usually adopted in breeding Norwich 

 Plainheads. What is wanted is crest, bear 

 in mind ; and since we must have crest, 



