Our Cinnamons. G3 



ever, of the several theories advanced by various writers 

 may be neither uninteresting nor unprofitable to my 

 young readers, whilst at the same time it may set them 

 thinking upon a subject which has perplexed much wiser 

 heads than our own, and if it serve no other purpose, 

 this will be an advantage in itself. 



About the origin of these several varieties and great 

 difference of colour found in the canary much diversity 

 of opinion, as might naturally be expected from a subject 

 so obscure, exists. Some ascribe it to locality, others 

 to food, and others again to cross-breeding with birds 

 of a kindred tribe. Thus Adamson, in support of the 

 former of these ideas, says, " I have observed that the 

 canary, which becomes white in France, is at Teneriffe 

 of a grey, almost as dark as that of a linnet." Again, 

 Beckstein says that " the grey of its primitive colour, 

 darker on the back and greener on the belly, has 

 undergone so many changes from its being domesticated, 

 from the climate, and from the union with birds ana- 

 logous to it (in Italy with the citril-finch, the serin ; 

 in our country [that is, Germany] with the linnet, the 

 green-finch, the siskin, and the goldfinch), that now we 

 have canaries of all colours. If we had not sufficient 

 proof that canaries came originally from the Fortunate 

 Islands, we should think that the citril-finch, the serin, 

 and the siskin, were the wild stock of this domesticated 

 race. I have seen a bird, whose parent birds were a 

 siskin and serin, which perfectly resembled a variety of 

 the canary, which is called the green. I have also seen 

 mules from a female grey canary in which was no trace 

 of their true parentage. The grey, the yellow, the 



