306 The Canary Book. 



under the simple head of "Variegated," for by no rule of 

 logic or common sense can an unevenly - marked bird be 

 classed as an evenly-marked one. Birds that are heavily or 

 badly marked require to be possessed of some extraordinary 

 merit beyond their markings to have even a remote chance 

 of success as a prize winner, when competing against such 

 birds as I have described. 



WHAT is A TICKED BIRD ? There's the rub ! A bond fide 

 ticked bird is a bird that possesses one clear and distinct 

 dark tick or spot on some part of the body, that can be 

 discovered without the aid of a magnifying glass, or straining 

 the sight for the space of ten minutes to find its where- 

 abouts. I do not consider a clear-bodied bird with a little 

 dark under-flue feather on the thigh or at the vent a ticked 

 bird. Birds with these slight blemishes are eligible to com- 

 pete in clear classes, and such trivial defects should be taken 

 into consideration in awarding the prizes. I do not place 

 much weight on these defects myself, and would only count 

 two or three neutral points against birds so marked. 



Evenly- and unevenly-marked Cinnamons of the Norwich 

 type are never shown in classes for Norwich birds, but are 

 invariably entered in the A.O.Y. class ; the same remarks are 

 equally applicable to Cinnamon-marked birds of the York- 

 shire varieties. 



For my part I see no reason why Cinnamon-marked birds 

 of the Norwich type, or the same variety of birds of the 

 Yorkshire type, should not compete against green-marked 

 birds of the same varieties, and where committees decide on 

 this the fact should be specially mentioned in the schedules. 

 No doubt this opens up another question, and that is, why 

 should not Cinnamon crests be made to compete in the 

 Crested-Norwich classes ? My answer is, that this may be 

 regarded as quite the exception to the rule, from the fact 

 that the introduction of Cinnamon blood stultifies the crest 

 properties, and, therefore, a Cinnamon-crested bird would 

 have no possible chance of competing with success in this 

 class. But with marked birds it is otherwise, as the 



