CHAPTER XIX. 



THE MODERN CRESTED NORWICH, 



SOME thirty- seven years ago crested birds were despised, and 

 I have laboured all these years, not only in cultivating the 

 breed, but also in encouraging a taste for it in others, and I 

 feel fully satisfied with the result of my labours. 



I have now in my possession the first evenly-marked and 

 crested yellow Norwich canary 1 ever saw. I need hardly say 

 that it has been under a glass shade for at least a quarter of 

 a century. I bred it some six-and-twenty years ago, and at 

 that time it created quite a sensation in the bird world. I 

 have also one by the side of it which I bred some seven years 

 ago, a bird that could win at this day, and the difference is 

 very marked between them, and shows at a glance the wonderful 

 improvements that have been achieved in the last twenty 

 years towards perfecting this variety. 



The modern crested Norwich has been produced by crossing 

 the original and true type of crested Norwich Canaries with 

 the Lancashire Coppies ; and I believe I am not far from the 

 truth when I say that the first attempt to introduce this 

 cross, of course, in a surreptitious manner, was made at 

 Northampton some eighteen years ago. Since the first intro- 

 duction of the Coppy, which was done in a stealthy manner, 

 breeders have become emboldened, and latterly no secret has 

 been made of it, as judges instead of putting their veto upon 

 it, have openly encoiiraged it, not only by awarding the whole 

 of the prizes in the crested classes to birds of this type, but 

 by lauding them when writing the accounts of the shows 



