276 The Canary Book. 



no skill required, no foresight, no brains. It is almost a matter 

 of chance; then why resort to it? Be warned in time, do not 

 destroy one of the loveliest of our varieties for the sake of a 

 whim. Besides, fanciers forget that the Lancashire bird is 

 descended from the Dutch and Belgian birds, and I am sorry 

 to say that many of them have inherited in a large degree 

 the delicacy of constitution inherent in these varieties, such 

 as asthma and tuberculosis, and thus they are unconsciously 

 propagating these disorders also. The original Norwich Cin- 

 namons had the most robust constitutions, but how many of 

 those modern birds are to be found that have sufficient stamina 

 to carry them through three years of breeding operations to 

 say nothing of exhibition specimens? I should say very few. 

 I am a great stickler for type, but the true types of several 

 of our varieties are becoming lost owing to the riding to death 

 of this rampant mania for size, and ere long a new classification 

 will be needed unless the craze can be abated. 



If fanciers really do want and admire large mongrel Cinna- 

 mons, by all means let them have them, but they should be 

 shown in the "Any other variety class," and not as true 

 Cinnamons. The colour of the genuine Cinnamon canary is' 

 so powerful and vigorous that with care and judicious breeding 

 it can be produced in any breed, and Cinnamon Belgians, 

 Cinnamon Scotch Fancies, Cinnamon Lancashires, or Cinnamon 

 Yorkshires could be easily manufactured, but the colour would 

 neither be so fine nor so rich as that found in the Norwich 

 Cinnamons, which after all is the true standard. 



At the present time there are first-class specimens of the 

 Scotch Fancy of a Cinnamon colour, and I saw one exhibited 

 at Birmingham, by Mr. Greame, of Brough, Yorkshire, in 

 1890, a bird, I believe, he purchased in Scotland, and a bird 

 of considerable merit, and in England would be, if properly 

 judged, difficult to beat in a class set apart for Scotch Fancies ; 

 but singular to say these sports in colour are all hens. About 

 twenty years ago, or perhaps a little more, I bought a large buff- 

 crested cock, almost a thoroughbred Lancashire, with immense 

 body and a good crest, one of the sturdy thick sort. I. put 



