Mule Breeding. 105 



be found to produce the most beneficial results in every 

 respect. 



ADJUNCTS FOB MULE-BREEDING. When commencing to 

 breed from the London Fancies, &c., it is a good plan to put 

 a pair of pure Norwich Fancies together at the same time, 

 both clears and nearly allied in kindred; also put a Belgian, 

 Glasgow Don, or Manchester Coppy canary, with a large 

 cinnamon variegated hen, or a clear hen bred from two birds 

 of the latter description ; cross the produce of these two pairs 

 of birds in the same way as I have pointed out in the first 

 instance. These birds can in the interval be utilised as 

 nurses, but at the end of three years they will be found 

 most valuable adjuncts to pair with what I may term the 

 regular muling strain, and the admixture of this new blood 

 will strengthen and invigorate them wonderfully, and without 

 detracting from their specific qualities to any appreciable 

 extent as mule breeders, seeing that they inherit the speciality 

 required through the in-and-in breeding. 



CONSANGUINITY. If you breed too long on the principle of 

 consanguinity, without an occasional admixture of new blood, 

 there is a danger in the course of time of losing the strain 

 altogether, although it might require a considerable period to 

 effect so undesirable an object. Still, there can be no manner 

 of doubt that the process of "sib" breeding tends greatly to 

 impair the health of birds, and ultimately makes them exceed- 

 ingly tender and bad to rear, and therefore an occasional 

 cross is in reality an imperative necessity, and I may add 

 that it is a common practice with many old mule-breeders to 

 exchange with each other a male canary about once in every 

 three or five years from their "noted" strains, as they find 

 it mutually advantageous to do so. 



When birds are sufficiently "sib-bred" for muling purposes 

 they will be found to be very sparse of feathers, and wanting 

 in the full complement of tail and wing feathers (eighteen 

 feathers in each wing, and twelve in the tail of a bird is the 

 full number of an ordirary specimen), and those covering the 



