CHAPTER IX. 



THE GLASGOW DON, OR SCOTCH FANCY. 



I DO not know how it happens, but the tastes and ideas of 

 Scotchmen and Englishmen are so thoroughly at variance with 

 each other respecting canaries which may almost be said to be 

 national favourites that any person not knowing the close 

 proximity which exists between the two countries might very 

 readily suppose that the two races were complete aliens to each 

 other. On the one hand, Scotchmen as a rule care nothing for 

 gay, glittering colours ; nothing for beautiful even markings, 

 nor delicately tinted pencillings ; neither do they attach much 

 value to crests, however good or exquisite they may be. "What 

 they admire most of all about canaries ia huge size, plenty of 

 bone, sinew, and muscle, combined with a certain peculiarity of 

 form which, to use their own vernacular, they are pleased to 

 term "hoopit," meaning circular in shape. To these birds 

 they appear to be completely wedded, and they uphold 

 them with a zeal and pertinacity that is almost enviable. 

 But this is only characteristic of the people, for Scotchmen 

 are proverbial for adhering, not only to each other, but to every- 

 thing that appertains to Scotland, and which they are sure to 

 laud, extol, and defend to the very uttermost of their power and 

 abilities; indeed, so much so, that it has become quite an ordinary 

 observation in England to say to any one similar in disposition, 

 " You are as clannish as a Scotchman ;" and this singularity of 

 character is just as strongly exhibited among the bird fancying 

 portion of the community as it is among any other class. 

 Scotchmen think very lightly of any other variety of canary 



