THE YORKSHIRE CANARY 



327 



Some Other 

 Opinions. 



'Sir. Crisp, -we also know, i'avours a cock of 

 good length, with shoulder and style, and 

 a typical hen. His citing breeding with a 

 small cock and large hen was to show that 

 good birds are bred from them when paired 

 to a suitable hen. 



Mr. W. Mundell, when lecturing in 

 London some few years ago, said : " We in 

 Yorkshire want size in oin- 

 cock birds, and typical, 

 breedy hens. From such 

 pairing we usually get the best results." 

 Mr. P. ]\Iason says : " I like a bit of size in 

 my cock birds, and a nice close -feathered 

 breedy hen." Mr. John Broadley, one of 

 Yorkshire's oldest breeders, does not favour 

 very large stock birds of either sex. He 

 says in his excellent book published by 

 The Feathered World : 



I never go in for very large stock liirds ; 

 there are very few birds in my room above 6f 

 inches in length. Belter type and nicer feather 

 can be got from birds of this description, and I 

 want style and quality to breed from. If liirds 

 do not get long enough the first year, I keep 

 them another year — that is if I think there is 

 anything in them. I always find that when 

 we use large stock birds we breed young birds 

 up to about 6| inches in length, and, say at 

 seven or eight weeks old, they nearly always get 

 too thick and coarse in feather, and every year 

 they are kept become worse. 



" Young birds bred by the former method, on 

 the contrary, nearly always grow belter, and they 

 last a great deal longer on the show table. I 

 like to see them as light as wax in featlier, and 

 of racy-like appearance ; this stamp of bird 

 nearly always catches the fancier's eye." 



Wc believe we are right in saying that 

 ]Mr. Matthew Broadley follows a similar 

 principle. 



Mr. J. Bailey likes the cock about 6J 

 inches long, and a hen 6| inches, as such 

 medium-balanced pairs in his opinion are 

 likely to breed birds with fewer faults, if 

 there is type and quality in them, than 

 from the excessively long birds. Mr. W. 

 H. Shackleton, in his interesting articles 

 in Canary and Cage-Bird Life, says " he 

 always endeavours so to pair that he has 

 the combined essentials of good points in 

 the two birds." Mr. R. Halliday believes 

 in pairing as far as possible two long 



topical show specimens, of course suitable 

 also in other points, but at the same time 

 says " if he had a little typical, smartly 

 made hen which he did not want to part 

 with he would pair her up to an extra long 

 cock of opposite coloin-. ' 



Such ojjinions conmiand respect, and 

 ])ractically l)car out what we have already 

 said that anything lacking in one bird 

 nuist be counteracted by mating it to a 

 bird exceptionally good in these points, 

 and if it comes from pedigree stock noted 

 for freedom from the faults which it is 

 desired to overcome, so much the better 

 for the prospects of improvement in the 

 offspring. The usual pairing of Yellow 

 to Buff is followed, and also Ticked or 

 ]Marked paired to Clears, luiless, as explained 

 before, the general rule is departed from, 

 to gain some advantage, such as pairing 

 two poor-coloured Yellows to improve 

 colour, or two extra slim Buffs with a 

 view to getting a better filled-in back 

 or improving the tendency to be too thin 

 in neck, or of getting closer feather. 



The breeder must not be surprised if, 

 from some of his Green-marked birds, he 

 obtains a sprinkling of Cinnamon-marked 

 young ones. These he will imderstand 

 how to manage if he has carcfiUly read our 

 remarks on Cinnamons in Chapter XXI. 

 He may or may not get these Cinnamon- 

 marked birds, according as Cinnamon blood 

 is present in the strain or otherwise ; but 

 in any circumstances its presence will soon 

 declare itself, and, when so declared, is 

 easily controlled, adding nuich to the value 

 of a strain at the same time that it increases 

 the field of operation and renders the work 

 even more interesting and to a great extent 

 more certain. And we may observe here, 

 as a corollary to the foregoing, that if it 

 be desired to breed the Cinnamon form of 

 the ]\Iarked Yorkshire, Green-marked birds 

 bred from the Cinnamons will produce 

 them in obedience to the physiological 

 peculiarities we have explained, precisely 

 in the same way as the Green-marked 

 birds are obtained from some of the Cinna- 

 mons. 



Mr. R. L. Crisp, whom we have previously 



