9 The Canary. 



We come then at last to the three English finches, 

 viz., the chaffinch, the linnet, and the goldfinch, as 

 being the most likely of any to ensure success, and as 

 being perhaps the most desirable when obtained. 

 Singularly enough, however, common as the chaffinch 

 is amongst- our gardens and orchards we have never 

 met with one that has ever been paired with a canary, 

 and never heard of such a thing as a hybrid produced 

 from them in this country. Here, however, they are 

 not held in the same esteem as in Germany, where, such 

 is the passion for these birds, that men have been known 

 to travel ninety miles from home to take with bird-lime 

 one of these birds, distinguished for its song, and have 

 given one of their cows for a fine songster having what 

 is termed the double trill of the Hartz. We cannot 

 enter into all the niceties of the chaffinch's song, and 

 beautiful as his plumage undoubtedly is when flitting 

 about in our orchards and gardens, it soon loses its 

 freshness and colour in confinement, and hence in 

 England it is little prized and seldom kept, and thus 

 it too may be dismissed as not affording much prospect 

 of success. 



Our choice, then, seems to lie principally between 

 the linnet and the goldfinch, both of which are easily 

 paired with the canary, and from both of which mules 

 are with little difficulty obtained. The offspring of 

 both these mixtures combine more or less the colours 

 of the parents, and participate in the shape of the male 

 linnet or goldfinch, rather than that of the female 

 canary. We need scarcely say, therefore, that the 

 produce of the linnet will always present a heavy 



