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There are many other species of the Pigeon group which 

 breed occasionally in confinement, of which fact there have 

 been numerous instances in the Zoological Gardens, but I 

 cannot find out that a true permanent domestic species other 

 than the above has ever been obtained. 



I have known imported wild species breed soon after 

 their arrival in England, but their offspring were rarely, if 

 ever, prolific. 



The Passerine birds form more than half of the known 

 species of birds, there are not far short of six thousand which 

 have been described by naturalists, yet out of this large 

 number but three appear on our dinner tables, viz. : the 

 Ortolan, a species allied to the Yellow-hammer; theWheatear, 

 still captured, but in sadly diminished numbers, on the South 

 Downs; and that blithe songster the Lark before adverted to, 

 but all these administer to a depraved taste, and are 

 rendered eatable only by the skill of the cook. 



The Canary is, the Dove excepted, the only truly 

 domestic cage-bird known in England, it belongs to the 

 Finches, Fringillidce, a family of Passerine birds, containing 

 between seventy and eighty genera and more than five 

 hundred species. 



This bird is far more prolific in captivity than in the 

 wild state, and the varieties of it are very numerous, it also 

 produces mules freely with the Goldfinch, Greenfinch, 

 Linnet, Siskin, and occasionally with the Bullfinch, Redpole, 

 Purple Finch, and other allied Finches. 



The origin of the canary is well known, it is undoubtedly 

 the Serinus canarius of the Canary Islands, but the domestic 

 bird is generally a Zanthous variety, those which are colored 

 like the wild bird, termed by the fanciers, green, are but little 

 valued. 



The canary has been known as a cage-bird for at least 

 300 years ; it is difficult to offer any explanation as to the 

 reason it lends itself so readily to domestication, it is probable 

 that as it inhabited so small a group of islands, its food might 

 have been little varied, thus its requirements in this respect 



