Our Lizards. 23 



site page are very fair likenesses, and convey a very 

 good idea of a pair of our own birds, whose history I 

 will now relate. Were they not told beforehand, few 

 people, I think, would take them for canaries, which 

 thus bears out the assertion I made at the beginning of 

 the book as to the general ignorance which prevails 

 amongst people unconnected with the trade, and shows 

 at a glance what a variety there is amongst them. 



It was on a fine November morning, now some years 

 ago, that Judy and I started off to a well-known bird- 

 dealer's, to make our first purchase for the new aviary. 

 We set out with the intention of buying a pair of the 

 London variety, which, however, we found not to be 

 much in request amongst the bird-fanciers of Lanca- 

 shire, and therefore seldom to be met with in Manchester. 

 The nearest approach to anything of the kind we saw 

 was a bird of a golden-yellow colour, with black spots 

 or stripes on the crown of his head. As he was a 

 lively, elegant-shaped bird, though somewhat weakly 

 and very young, we soon had him separated from his 

 companions, and hung in a black show-cage for our 

 inspection. With good keep and careful attention we 

 thought he would soon outgrow these deficiencies, an<7 

 as we otherwise thought him a desirable bird, there we 

 left him, whilst we looked round the stock in th& 

 adjoining room, and finally determined on the propriety 

 of his purchase. 



Here, amongst others, we saw a whole cage-full of 

 that charming variety called the Lizard, but whose 

 markings remind me much more of the gold and silver- 

 pencilled Hamburg fowl, or Sebright's bantam, so well 



