10 CANARY BIRDS. 



brown, of different shades, and in varying 

 proportions, are the common colors of those 

 birds bred in confinement ; how the changes 

 have been produced, it is now impossible to 

 say; climate, food, and intermixture of 

 breeds, have, no doubt, each and all had 

 some effect in producing them, as by a care- 

 ful attention to these matters, the latter 

 especially, breeders in the country may now 

 calculate with a tolerable degree of certainty 

 on the kind of bird they are likely to have 

 from certain parents, under certain circum- 

 stances. With regard to climate, it has 

 been remarked by Adamson, that the cana- 

 ry, which becomes in France nearly white, 

 is, at Teneriffe, almost brown, and this 

 agrees with the general observation of na- 

 turalists, that the covering of animals, be it 

 fur or feathers, becomes thicker, and lighter 

 of color, in proportion to the coldness of 

 the climate which they inhabit. We should 

 not, however, lay too much stress upon this 

 argument, for in this, as in all other northern 



