Our Green Birds. 51 



CHAPTER VIII. 



OUR GREEN BIRDS. 



JAVING thus got so many distinct varieties of 

 breed, we now desire to add to our little collec- 

 tion specimens of every description of colour. 

 In our Yorkshire and Norwich birds we had the 

 spangled white and plain yellow, in the lizards the 

 dark grey and green gold, in the London fancy the rich 

 yellow contrasting with the jet black, and in our Bel- 

 gians the pure golden orange. There were two others 

 we particularly desired to meet with, viz., a pure grass 

 green and the exquisite fawn. With regard to the first 

 of these we did not suppose we should have much 

 trouble, though in this we were destined to be deceived ; 

 whilst with regard to the latter we stood in considerable 

 doubts whether we should be able to obtain one at all, 

 as we knew it to be the rarest of any. Though green 

 birds are as plentiful as blackberries, they were all, we 

 soon found, more of a dingy brown than a real green, 

 and for the most part very ugly, ill-shaped birds, into 

 the bargain. Scores and scores did we see with heads 

 and necks thick as those of the common house- sparrow, 

 and whose plumage was more like that of the linnet 

 than a canary. With such short, stumpy, ill-favoured, 

 and dingy-feathered birds we would have nothing to do. 

 When we said we wanted a green canary, we meant one 

 whose colour was as green as the grass or the leaf of an 

 ash-tree, coupled with a form long, tapering, and 

 slender as that of the Belgian. On this we had set our 



