CANARY CULTURE 187 



venturous voyages, were keenly on the watch to dis- 

 cover in the new countries some familiar bird or 

 flower, and Columbus's journals are dotted with 

 entries of the song of " river sparrows " and " finches," 

 "like those we hear in Spain." Italian voyagers are 

 credited with being the first to bring the canary-birds 

 to Europe. They are said to have been brought over 

 early in the sixteenth century as part of the cargo of a 

 vessel bound for Leghorn. The ship was wrecked, 

 and many of the birds were released and flew to the 

 nearest land, which happened to be the island of 

 Elba. There they found a climate so like that of 

 their native land that they nested, and would have 

 become naturalised. But the greater number were 

 recaptured, and sold in the coast towns of Western 

 Italy. There the tame canary was first established ; 

 and it is said that its portrait may be found intro- 

 duced into more than one of the works of old Italian 

 painters, depicted in the sober colours in which it first 

 made its appearance in the peninsula. The peculiar 

 beauty of the plumage was the soft merging of the 

 green on the back into a beautiful warm grey beneath, 

 a tint which may still be found in the " mules," and 

 which seems to reappear in the " cinnamon" and 

 " lizard " canaries. 



The splendid bright yellow of the modern birds 

 was gained by carefully mating all those in which the 

 yellow colour showed most conspicuously. But there 

 are equally beautiful varieties which are neither green 

 nor yellow, and yet have been established for nearly 

 two centuries. To a naturalist the permanence of the 



