44 The Ca^rv. 



•vvitb, but raised our thoughts at still higher game. 

 Christmas had now arrived, and brought ^vith it the 

 usual foreign importations from Belgium and Ger- 

 many. Accordingly, one bright December morning, 

 Agnes and I set oft to our bird-dealer's to see what 

 there was to be seen. There we found a numerous and 

 splendid collection of beautiful and high-priced birds from 

 Belgium awaiting our inspection, and with whose lovely 

 colour and noble bearino: we were at once delis^hted. 

 There was as much difference between these birds and 

 an ordinary English canary as there is between an old- 

 fashioned Northamptonshire cart-horse and a pure bred 

 Arabian of the desert. Nor is the comparison inappro- 

 priate; on the contrary, it serves to point out the 

 essential differences existing between them. Thus, as 

 in the horse, so in the bird, whereas the head of the 

 more common breed is thick, and round, and narrow, 

 that of the Belgian is square, and wide, and flat, the 

 skull and back forming an exact triangle, instead of 

 the narrow oval usually found in the foreheads of the 

 common breed; whereas the neck and throat of our 

 English birds are short, and thick, and clumsy-looking, 

 that of the Belgians is loug, tapering, and elegant; 

 whereas the whole body of the former is short and 

 stumpy, that of the latter is long, tapering, and slender ; 

 whereas the colour of the former is, comparatively 

 speaking, poor and mealy (we are speaking now only 

 of the common varieties), that of the latter is rich, and 

 bright, and pure, many of them presenting as much 

 difference in the matter of colour as exists between a 

 ripe orange and an ordinary lemon. The great feature, 



