Our Turncrests. 77 



was our own King Pepin whose portrait we have given 

 at the head of this chapter. Of gigantic stature and 

 Herculean proportion of limb, he united singular excel- 

 lence in the gracefulness of his contour, with great 

 richness of colour. But such birds are by no means 

 common, few having so great a degree of Belgian blood 

 in their veins, which can alone give the snake-like head, 

 long neck, and taper form of body peculiar to them 

 alone. The majority we fear will be found to possess 

 the worst properties of the commonest English birds, 

 and, therefore, by no means to be considered an acqui- 

 sition. On the contrary, if all such were to be exter- 

 minated by act of parliament, or a canary jockey club, 

 or any other power to-morrow, we hold it would be one 

 of the greatest boons that could possibly be conferred 

 on the canary-loving community. We might then 

 start afresh with birds of superior form, and breed only 

 from those who united in themselves elegance of form 

 with beauty of colour, when in a few years we doubt 

 not the canary of England would be as superior lo 

 those of all other lands, as the English horse has been 

 made to excel every other in the known world. This 

 may seem Utopian, but it is not so. It is only from 

 ignorance and the business of breeders being left for 

 the most part in the hands of some of the most uncul- 

 tivated taste, that the present multitude of ill-shaped 

 ugly birds that are everywhere to be seen have come into 

 being. Let any one once see a high bred Belgian bird, 

 and note the elegance of his shape, and then contrast 

 it with the stumpy English specimens he has hitherto 

 been breeding, and we will answer for it he will never 



