Mule Breeding. 107 



birds select all the evenly-marked and clear birds, and breed 

 them together, brothers and sisters, for three generations; by 

 this time they should throw marked mules. You may now 

 cross the young bred from the two original pairs of birds, and 

 then proceed as before, crossing the buffs together and the 

 yellows together, and at the end of the sixth generation you 

 ought to be rewarded with a breed of birds as reliable as any 

 procurable always, of course, breeding brothers and sisters 

 together. This plan has been tried with success. I must, how- 

 ever, say that I still have great faith in the London Fancy 

 birds for a cross, and should prefer these birds to Norwich, 

 as they have been sib-bred for at least fifty years. I must 

 also say that I have most faith in an old goldfinch, one from 

 three years old upwards, if sound and in good health and 

 plumage. Hens with pink eyes bred from a cinnamon cross, 

 which indicates Albino blood, are preferable to any other 

 variety for breeding variegated mules. In selecting an un- 

 tried hen for this purpose choose one that is very pale in 

 colour: if of the kind known as " buff," select one as nearly 

 white as possible; if "yellow" obtain one of a pale straw 

 colour, or as near to those colours as you can procure them, 

 as such hens mostly breed pied mules. 



DARK GOLDFINCH MULES. Having fully given all the in- 

 structions necessary for obtaining a reliable strain of canaries 

 for the production of variegated mules, it will probably be 

 found advantageous to some if I give a few hints as to the 

 breeding of dark goldfinch mules, which, although of consider- 

 ably less value than their more esteemed confreres, the pied 

 birds, are nevertheless, when good, much esteemed by some 

 people. The great desideratum in these birds is size and rich- 

 ness of colour, and when these qualities are obtained, combined 

 with good shape, carriage, and closeness and quality of feather, 

 you are pretty near the top of the tree, I can assure you. 



In order to establish a tribe of canary hens likely to produce 

 dark goldfinch mules fit for the " keenest competition," it will 

 be necessary to procure first a very rich-plumaged Norwich 

 bird of either sex. with a clea~ orange-coloured breast and dark 



