CHAPTER XXVI 



THE BELGIAN CANARY 



We now pass to our third group — the 

 birds of Shape and Position, which include 

 the Belgian, Scotch Fancy, Lancashire, 

 Yorkshire and Dutch Frill Canaries, five 

 most important families, and each possess- 

 ing strongly marked distinctive features 

 which single them out in an immistakable 

 way. 



^Ve commence with the Belgian Canary, 

 which still retains the name of its birth- 

 place, and where to this day it is an object 

 of the greatest interest. However luicer- 

 tain some points of its history may be, it 

 can be accepted that over sixty years 

 ago Courtrai ranked first, from a Canary 

 point of view, of all Belgian cities, followed 

 in order by Brussels, Antwerp, Ghent, and 

 Bruges as regards birds of position. 



The chief characteristics of the Belgian 



is, in fact, its peculiar shape and position ; 



length, too, is a valuable 



Shape and .^^K^.j^ct. For a capital defi- 

 Position. J ^ 



nition of these features we 



reprint, with slight modification where 



necessary, the late IVIi-. Blakston's rema,rks 



on these properties : 



Tliese terms require some explanation ; liither- 

 lo, shape has in every case occupied a phice in 

 our lists of properties whicli the varieties of 

 Canaries already described are supposed to 

 possess, but in no case presenting such marked 

 peculiarity as the Belgian. And the same with 

 the idea of position. Beyond a general state- 

 ment as to the ordinary posture of any birds 

 such as semi-erect, implying nothing peculiar 

 or out of the ordinary course, no further idea 

 has been attached to this feature, which, with 

 its companion, shape, must now be considered 

 as special cultivated developments before which 

 all other considerations nuist give way. 



We commence our description with shape, 

 as including that peculiar physical conformation 

 on which possible perfection of position de- 

 pends, although the results of that conforma- 

 40 



tion are not at all times presented to the eye 

 in the form of a constant beauty, the bird Ijeing 

 able at will to shut itself up, as it 

 ^P^- were, destroying all its elegant pro- 

 portions, which are only exhil)ited in their highest 

 form during periods of nervous excitement and 

 which are considered by some to be malforma- 

 tions. From this it will be seen how much the 

 one property is dependent on the other, since 

 so much of outward shape is gathered from 

 position, and so much of position must depend 

 on anatomical construction. 



The liead of the Belgian is singularly neat ; 

 it is smaller in proportion to the size of the bird 

 than in any other variety — the Scotch Fancy, 

 which Is an offshoot from this tribe, only ex- 

 cepted — and is much flatter on the crown, 

 causing the bird to be what is known among 

 fanciers as " snake-headed." The eye, too, is 

 full of softness and intelligence, possibly the 

 result of long-continued effort in the direction 

 of taming or quieting down and subduing native 

 restlessness. 



The neck appears to be formed on a telescopic 

 plan, being capable of a remarkable degree of 

 extension or elongation, of which we shall speak 

 when we put our bird into " position." At 

 present we are supposing our bird to be at rest, 

 or standing " at ease," under no excitement 

 whatever, at which time it is sufficient for our 

 present purpose to say its attitude is erect, or 

 nearly so — the body assuming practically the 

 same posture as when " in position," but the 

 head and neck an entirely ditferent one. When 

 " at ease " the head projects from the body at as 

 nearly as possible a right angle, the summit of 

 the crown and the tips of the shoulders being 

 about on the same level, the upper line of the 

 neck being practically concave, though made 

 up of a series of small convexed arcs. The 

 upper line is that which is generally referred to 

 when speaking of length of neck in general 

 terms, because the underneath line has little 

 more of length belonging to it than attaches to 

 the throat, which speedily joins the breast. 

 We refer to this simply as an explanation of 

 what is technically " neck," because paridlel 

 lines drawn across the neck at the beginning 

 and end of the throat would easily show how 



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