CHAPTER XXVII 



THE SCOTCH FANCY CANARY 



As its name siijjfjests, this remarlvtible 

 Canary is to Scotland what the Belgian is 

 to Belgium — the national bird. It is 

 doubtless an offshoot of the Belgian, and 

 in its early days was known as the Glasgow 

 Fancy and Glasgow Don, prior to breeders 

 generally adopting the name of Scotch 

 Fancy. 



No authentic history of the bird is forth- 

 coming, and, as the late Mr. Blakston 



wrote : 

 Origin of ,, c f ,1 



the Variety. ^o far as we can gather 



there is nothing directly con- 

 necting the Ijird with historical events, its 

 development Ijeing probably of local interest, 

 but the bird itself is an unwritten narrative 

 of deep interest. We define the Scotch 

 Fancy to be a Belgian built on a curve instead 

 of on the ordinary rectangular scaffolding. The 

 bird repeats itself, with never a reversion to any 

 form not essentially Belgian in type, nor is there 

 anything in its conformation, as fixed by the 

 best standards, which it requires any other 

 than Belgian blood to produce ; neither is any 

 other ever infused on a decline of any of those 

 requisites which, though they may lie modified 

 forms, are essentially Belgian, and can only be 

 recruited from a Belgian fountain. The l)ird 

 can be regarded as belonging to a ' mixed ' 

 breed only in the sense of mixing fresh Belgian 

 blood with the accepted standard type ; and 

 it certainly does not follow that, because some 

 breeders may make a freer use of the Belgian 

 element than others who possil)ly may work 

 with such care and skill as not to require it, 

 the bird is therefore to be spoken of as of 

 ' mixed ' blood. Gaps must be repaired and 

 missing links supplied ; retrogression must be 

 carefully guarded against and any departure 

 from a fl.xed standard of beauty at once inter- 

 cepted by returning to the source whence 

 derived ; but these requirements are no evidence 

 of alien blood, and no other evidence of alien 

 admixture, however remote, crops up in the 

 best strains. If it be of mixed ialood. what are 

 its elements ? Belgian and what ? We know 



Characteristics. 



that some Englisli fanciers are apt to speak 

 disparagingly of the bird, and assert that it can 

 be knocked together out of next to nothing ; 

 but we know of no two varieties we should put 

 together in the expectation of turning out a 

 bird with the many pronounced features of the 

 Scotch Fancy, while on the other hand we find 

 no difficulty in tracing the reflection of every 

 feature, more or less distinctly, in the Belgian 

 bird alone, of which, we repeat, there is external 

 and internal evidence that it is a skilfully 

 modified form, a lineage to be proud of." 



Of late years breeders have been carried 

 away too much by " shoulder," and have 

 allowed many faults to 

 creep in, such as straight 

 backs and tails, also too great breadth at 

 shoulder, all Belgian characteristics, and 

 not those of the Scotch Fancy. This 

 departure has caused some heartburning 

 amongst Belgian breeders, many main- 

 taining that such birds win in both Belgian 

 and Scotch Fancy classes. 



We have described the Scotch Fancy as 

 practically a curvilinear Belgian. The head 

 of a good specimen diifers from that of the 

 Belgian only in that it is a little more round, 

 how much so would scarcely be imagined 

 unless the two are compared side by side. 

 This may seem but a small point, but we 

 refer to it as illustrating the extreme care 

 which has been exercised in producing a 

 curve which should continue to the ex- 

 tremity of the beak. The under surface 

 from the throat to the breast, thence to the 

 vent and on to the end of the tail, shoidd 

 form a complete concave. Of course there 

 is a little extra dip at the top end, especially 

 if the bird is very long in reach — that is, 

 has good length of neck — a desirable 

 feature which every practical breeder en- 

 deavours to obtain as much of as possible. 



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