6() The Canary. 



England. Climate has no influence in permanently 

 altering the varieties or races of men ; destroy them it 

 inay and does, but it cannot convert them into any 

 other race." Now if this be true, as we think it un- 

 (^ucstionably is, in the case of man, it must be equally 

 true of the feathered tribes in general, and of the 

 canary in particular. Climate, therefore, we repeat 

 cannot have anything to do with the alteration of their 

 plumage, any more than the food which they eat, and 

 to which, it must again be observed, they are all equally 

 exposed alike. 



Still more preposterous is the idea that all this variety 

 in their colour has been produced by cross-breeding 

 with other varieties of the Finch tribe. We do not 

 doubt for a moment the possibility of breeding a mule 

 between a canary and a linnet, a canary and a goldfinch, 

 or a canary and a siskin, for we ourselves have both 

 seen and done it. Nor do we doubt that occasionally 

 cases may be found where these hybrids have bred 

 again, for the Rev. Mr. Wood, in his delightful book 

 entitled ^ My Feathered Friends,' gives the result of 

 two interesting experiments he made upon the subject, 

 and in which he succeeded in obtaining a young bird 

 from a hybrid canary-goldfinch paired with a pure hen 

 canary, and also another from a pair who were them- 

 selves both hybrids. But still, what we say is this, 

 that these are only to be regarded as exceptions to the 

 general rule and law of nature, and that their very 

 rarity only makes the rule the stronger. There is no 

 abrogation, and never can be, of that wise law which 

 Providence has ordained alike for every animal under 



