338 The Canary Book. 



The flight and tail feathers of a Lizard, whether golden or 

 silver spangled, should be black, as also the wing and tail 

 coverts ; and the more intense and brilliant they are the more 

 valuable is the bird. But these feathers are all more or 

 less fringed at the extreme outer edges with a golden or 

 silvery hue, according to the variety of the bird; but neither 

 the tail nor the flight feathers in the wings should be spangled 

 in a show specimen. A bird may by accident shed a wing 

 or tail feather, which they frequently do; and when they 

 are reproduced they show the "half moon;" but this can 

 in no wise be regarded as a disqualification, although it may 

 to some extent be looked upon as a detraction, and might 

 be considered as such in the event of two birds proving 

 of equal merit in all other points. The throat, breast, sides 

 of neck, belly, and vent of the bird should be as uniform 

 in colour throughout as possible. Some birds are much 

 lighter in colour at the sides of the belly near the thighs 

 than they are on the breast, &c. This is a defect. The 

 breast of a good bird is regularly spangled, although the 

 spangles are so delicate that it requires a strong side light 

 to see them distinctly. Some birds and good birds, too 

 are striped with a darker shade of colour down the breast, 

 but the less these stripes are observable the better. From the 

 termination of the cap at the back of the head to the end of 

 the saddle feathers the ground colour should be uniform, but 

 darker than the breast and belly, as these feathers are 

 shaded with bla&c, and each of them should be clearly 

 "mooned" or spangled round the end or bottom with yellow or 

 buff (gold or silver), and the more distinct and well-defined 

 these spangles are the more is the value of the bird enhanced. 

 As the feathers upon the neck of a bird are much smaller 

 in proportion to those which cover the back, the spangles, 

 as a natural sequence, are much closer, and consequently 

 they appear more numerous than they do upon the back of 

 the bird, where the feathers are larger and the spangles 

 more distinct. This gives the bird an appearance of being 

 lighter in colour round the neck or collar, more especially in 

 a silver-spangled bird, and. instead of being, as might be 



