CHAPTER XXV 



THE LONDON FANCY CANARY 



In endeavouring to arrive at the origin of 

 this remarkable Canary, we must admit 

 that we liave little else than conjecture 

 to guide us in lifting the veil which shrouds 

 its early history. That it is, as already 

 stated, very closely allied to the Lizard 

 there can be little doubt, 

 and we think we shall be 

 able to show how circum- 

 stances seem to point to 

 its being an olfshoot 

 from, if not really simply 

 nothing more than a modi- 

 lied form of that bird. In 

 so far as regards reliable 

 data, the London Fancy 

 can certainly point to its 

 name in eighteenth cen- 

 tury registers, and say to 

 any other Canary, " Here 

 is evidence that consider- 

 ably more than a hun- 

 dred years ago / zvas, and 

 that at a time when, in 

 the absence of proof to the 

 contrary, I assume you 

 xi'cre not.'' That, how- 

 ever, might arise from the 

 fact that its admirers were 

 better organised and 

 banded together under 

 stringent laws, which have been handed 

 down to us, for the purjDose of develojMng 

 this then new fancy from something older- 

 It may be, and probably is, quite true that 

 the London Fancy is the oldest " fancy "' 

 development and the first Canary which, 

 singled out from many other varieties, 

 made for itself a name among its con- 

 temjjoraries who may not have been known 

 by any special designation or distinguished 

 39 



by other than general terms more or less 

 characteristic of some pecidiar feature ; 

 e.g. " The Fine Spangled Sort, commonly 

 called, French Canary Birds." 



The historical relation between the Lizard 

 and London Fancy may only be slight, but 



LONDON FANCY 



•'OLD GOLD.' 



{See p. 306.) 



we think it more than probable that the 

 " fine spangled sort, commonly called 

 French Canary birds," Avould form part of 

 the fenedes of the Protestant refugees, 

 chiefly silk- weavers and workers of other, 

 textile fabrics, who found shelter here from 

 the persecutions in France and the Low 

 Countries over a century before we hear of 

 any form of that " fine spangled sort " 

 being known by the special name identi- 



305 



