The Belgian. 225 



marked yellow, unevenly-marked buff ; although it rarely 

 happens that they are divided into more than four, and some- 

 times fewer. The clears are almost invariably the best birds, 

 nevertheless it does occasionally happen that a very lightly 

 marked or ticked bird can be obtained quite as good in standard 

 points as the very best of clear birds ; hence, I think that where 

 four classes only are provided for this variety of birds, the 

 ticked and clears ought to compete together, and the evenly - 

 marked and variegated should be arranged under one head. 

 Buffs and yellows cannot be shown together on equitable terms, 

 as the buff birds generally have much advantage in size, &c. It 

 is likewise a well established fact that the variegated birds are 

 much inferior in points of merit to the clear birds. This is 

 somewhat difficult to account for, unless we could believe that 

 the progenitors of the last named were originally all clear 

 yellows and buffs, and that the marked variety are the result of 

 a foreign admixture, and that whenever the birds appear in the 

 mixed plumage they inherit more largely the properties of this 

 allied blood. Be this as it may, it is a singular and undoubted 

 truth that the more heavily a Belgian bird is marked the more 

 deficient he is sure to be in all the essential characteristics which 

 constitute a high- class bird of this variety. 



POINTS. The points required to constitute a high-class Bel- 

 gian canary are as follows : A small sleek head, rather flat on 

 the crown, well set, with nicely chiselled jaws, a neat, well-formed 

 beak, a full eye, a long slender neck, delicately formed, and 

 having the appearance of being chiselled, and which should be 

 gracefully curved downwards from the junction of the head to the 

 commencement of the shoulders ; the shoulders should be broad, 

 very prominent, and well formed, rounding towards the back, 

 with an elegant curved line ; the back should be well filled in. 

 From the termination of the deflection of the shoulders to 

 the back, the back as well as the tail should be almost perpen- 

 dicular, with the slightest possible inflection towards an inner 

 curve; the chest should be prominent and well developed in 

 front, but flat at the sides; the waist long, small, and finely 

 formed, with an inward curve towards the thighs; the legs 

 should be long and straight, and well set, with well-made 



