The Norwich Fancy. .293 



paired with a plain-headed bird of the opposite sex with a darfe 

 cap and wing markings, or a clear bird from a dark-crested 

 strain ; but by crossing the clear and marked birds together you 

 have a chance of getting young birds of both varieties in the 

 same nest. In order to improve the colour and quality of your 

 birds it will be necessary for you to cross them occasionally with 

 clear birds, not of the crested strain; in this case you should 

 mate a marked and crested bird, or a clear bird with a dark 

 crest, with one as evenly marked as you can procure of a high- 

 coloured strain, for if you cross with clear birds you may expect 

 to get more grey and clear crested young birds than dark-crested 

 ones. Select from this cross the best crested and heaviest marked 

 birds, and mate them with clear birds bred from a marked and 

 crested strain ; or, better still, if you can procure them, with clear 

 bodies with dark caps. Whenever you breed birds of the descrip- 

 tion just named be sure to keep them ; they are invaluable for 

 breeding purposes, and far more difficult to procure than crested 

 birds. To improve the evenly-marked and crested birds in their 

 markings, you will be obliged to cross a clear bird with a dark 

 crest, or one lightly wing-marked, with an evenly wing-marked 

 bird of the plain evenly-marked strain (four marked), and if 

 marked about the head it is so much the more to be preferred, 

 but must be marked nowhere else ; this should be done about once 

 in three or four years. It is the regular custom to couple a 

 jonque and mealy bird together (yellow and buff), but if you wish 

 to breed large birds, close in feather, with large well-formed 

 crests, you must frequently breed from two buffs or mealies, but 

 be sure that one is crested, and the other crested bred ; this must 

 not be overdone, or the produce will be coarse. I sometimes 

 select a bird nearly all green, with a crest, and cross it with a 

 clear bird, as it improves the colour both of the body feathers 

 and the crests. When you have succeeded in producing a race 

 of birds with crests and markings to your liking, breed them, 

 together occasionally a little " sib " (consanguinity), say, first 

 cousins, but be careful not to overdo it, or the produce will 

 become small, weak, and puny. By the adoption of this method 

 you will perpetuate the features you require. 



If you pair two crested birds with each other, their progeny, as 



