336 The Canary Book. 



breed young birds with foul feathers white feathers among 

 their pinion coverlets, or in their wings or tails. "When these 

 appear at the shoulder blades or pinions, the bird is called 

 "shelly shouldered," meaning that it resembles a chaffinch, 

 which is often called by bird-catchers the "shell apple"; 

 and this is considered, as it unquestionably is, a great 

 blemish ; but clear flight or tail feathers are the most detri- 

 mental of . all, and those fanciers who pride themselves upon 

 breeding good Lizards invariably give all such ill-favoured 

 progeny their quietus ere they number many days in the 

 calendar of life. "Were it not that this practice savours 

 strongly of wanton cruelty I would have endorsed it, as I 

 verily believe that it is the only method of effectually 

 stamping out all remnants of impure blood. 



CLASSES. There are two varieties of these birds, viz., yellows 

 and buffs (jonques and mealies), or, as they are more frequently 

 designated, golden-spangled and silver-spangled Lizards. These 

 are divided into four classes as follows: Golden-spangled 

 Lizards, silver- spangled Lizards, golden- spangled Lizards with 

 broken caps, and silver-spangled Lizards with broken caps. 



Thirty years ago and upwards there was a breed of Lizards 

 known among fanciers by the name of " Blue Lizards." I 

 have never seen but three of those magnificent birds, which 

 I bought. It is twenty-seven or twenty-eight years since the 

 last of these died, and I have never been able to procure 

 another specimen of them, although I have used every effort 

 to do so. I have been told by several very old fanciers that 

 they were plentiful enough fifty or sixty years ago; now 

 they appear to be quite extinct. What a pity ! They were 

 totally different from the silver Lizards of the present day. 

 The ground colour of these birds was a beautiful, soft bluish 

 grey, but decidedly blue in tint, and the spangles were par- 

 ticularly well defined and clear, and as white as newly-molten 

 silver. I consider they were by far the handsomest of all the 

 Lizard varieties. 



POINTS. The golden- spangled Lizard should be in its ground 

 or body colour a deep rich golden bronze green or fine old moss 



