102 The Canary, 



conflicting advice given by various writers upon the 

 subject, such being true probably as regards his own 

 unhmited experience, but scarcely to be relied on as an 

 unalterable rule for all. Thus, one writer whom we 

 have consulted lays down the law clearly and tersely : 

 " If you wish very high-coloured birds, breed jonque 

 and jonque," that is, bright yellow with bright yellow, 

 whilst another as confidently asserts that such a mode 

 of proceeding will never do, but that " a fine full- 

 coloured yellow bird is most likely to be obtained from 

 the union of a clear-bred jonque cock with a large per- 

 fect mealy hen." Who shall decide when doctors dis- 

 agree ? As in the matter of medicine, the homoeopaths 

 and the allopaths are diametrically opposed in the prin- 

 ciples on which their practice is based, the one asserting 

 that like cures like, and the other clinging as strictly 

 to the contraries, so do authors who treat upon the 

 breeding of the canary. One party asserts without 

 fear of contradiction, " that the union of opposites are 

 productive of the most harmonious results," the other 

 that their experience teaches the very contrary. For 

 my own part, I believe much depends upon the parti- 

 cular circumstances of each case. Wherever we can 

 obtain pure bred birds from a pure stock of several ge- 

 nerations I have no doubt about the soundness and 

 wisdom of the homoeopathic principle of " like producing 

 like. " But where birds have been cross bred with others 

 of different colour, or where it is desirable to infuse a 

 harder texture into the soft and flossy silkiness of 

 feather usually found in very high-coloured birds, a 

 cross with a close-feathered mealy hen may be more 



