THE BORDER FANCY CANARY 



291 



an angle of about 4.5 deg., the head being 

 elevated and the line of the back just over 

 the shoulder and the back of head forming 

 a rather acute angle. The carriage is gay 

 and jaunty, with the fine free jiose of a bird 

 possessing good manners. This descrip- 

 tion coincides with that given in the 

 Border Fancy Chdj Standard, and is well 

 portrayed in our coloured plate and the full- 

 page illustration on page 157. 



Good health must at all times have due 

 consideration paid to it in the breeding- 

 room by breeding with sound, 



Breeding pob^st 'stock. We have said 

 Borders. 



that the Border was perfected 



by the assistance of the Cinnamon or 

 " Dun," which in those daj^s was small, as 

 noted in our chapter on Cinnamons. It 

 Avas also very tight in feather, and from 

 this bird we obtained much of the quality 

 of feather now so firmly established as 

 one of the recognised characteristics of the 

 Border Fancy ; it also assisted much 

 towards good marking. From the old- 

 fashioned Norwich we obtained much 

 colour, that bird also then being small 

 and very tight and short in feather, with 

 wonderfully rich coloiu". From the York- 

 shire we obtained smart carriage, and 

 reduced any undue bulkiness of body. 

 Such crosses are not now necessary, for 

 type and general characteristics have been 

 fixed for so many years past that there is 

 plenty of material at hand in the variety 

 itself, without wasting time in resorting to 

 out-crosses. Still, if necessary, we should 

 not hesitate to cross a very small, slim 

 Yorkshire with any Border showing a 

 tendency to get stout in body and full in 

 neck, pairing the offspring back again to 

 pure Borders. In this way we should not 

 be long in producing birds fit for the 

 exhibition bench. But whoever attemjits 

 such crossing must have experience, 

 thoroughly know what he wants, and also 

 be a keen observer ; otherwise his safest 

 plan is to stick to the ready-made material 

 and leave out-crossing with foreign blood 

 to older hands. 



In the nineties of the last century, Mr. 

 William Armstrong, of Armthwaite, near 



Carlisle, a Border Fancy breeder, visited 

 Yorkshire and brought back with him 

 some small evenly marked 

 Influence ^^d almost evenly marked 

 Yorkshire Yorkshires. These he paired 

 to some of his Border Fancies, 

 and their young back to Borders, following 

 up the process with the result that by 

 careful selection he produced some of the 

 finest and most successful Even-lMarked 

 Borders in Cumberland, and there are 

 descendants of his strain in the district to 

 this day. The perpetuation of such mark- 

 ings we fully dealt with in the chapter 

 on " Even Marks," and as those principles 

 hold eqiuilly good as regards Borders, we 

 refer those desirous of breeding them to 

 that chapter. 



Like Mr. Armstrong, we, too, have used 

 a small Yorkshire to improve character- 

 istics in our Borders, both clear and 

 marked birds, and with equally good 

 rcsidts, pairing the crosses back to genera- 

 tions of suitable Borders until we attained 

 our object. After using such a cross it is 

 years before its repetition is necessary. 



Some fanciers seem horrified at getting 

 a bird just a little too stout or full in neck, 

 or one possessing both 

 these faults, whilst they 

 ignore other good points 

 the bird may possess, such as excelling in 

 quality of feather, smart carriage of wings 

 and body, neat head, etc., and they 

 strenuously advise that such birds should 

 on no accovmt be used for breeding pur- 

 jooses. Yet it would be just as reasonable 

 to warn breeders against the use of a bird 

 a little too thin in neck or too slimly 

 built, which no one with jiractical exjse- 

 rience would get rid of provided it 

 possessed other good qualities. We have 

 found birds a little too stout or too full 

 in neck most valuable to pair up to those 

 failing the reverse way, and have succeeded 

 even to the extent of producing show birds 

 from such pairing. Even faulty birds can 

 thus be paired together to produce more 

 perfect specimens, and there is no need 

 to discard such birds so long as they have 

 suitable partners. It is the same in this 



A Needless 

 Fear. 



