10 CANARIES 



Territorial Designations. 



All this goes to prove that the hobby of canary-keeping 

 can boast of being an ancient, and not at all a modern 

 institution. It would appear that when the canary 

 became domesticated the first sports were in the direction 

 of the yellow colour, which to-day is the general colour. 

 So far as our own country is concerned, territorial names 

 have been given to most of the different varieties which 

 are known. Thus we have Scots Fancy, London Fancy, 

 Lancashire, Yorkshire, Norwich and Border. 



Wonderful, indeed, has been the progress of the last 

 half-century. Wonderful not only in the largely increased 

 numbers of individuals who are engaged in the art and 

 pastime, but also in the development of the different 

 varieties. 



In its early days the hobby seems to have been most 

 closely associated with our industrial districts. Thus 

 we find the crepe and shoe operatives of Norwich, the 

 hosiery workers of Leicester, the lace spinners of Notting- 

 ham, the cotton spinners of Lancashire, the woollen 

 weavers of Yorkshire, the silk weavers of Coventry, and 

 the leather workers of Northampton and Kettering all 

 keenly interested in the hobby. 



Changes Wrought by Machinery. 



During the last fifty years machinery has wrought 

 such great changes in our manufacturing towns that the 

 work which used to be done in the home by hand is now 

 turned out in factories, and the Canary Fancy of to-day 

 is not so localised and confined as it was fifty years ago. 

 Still, even to-day, the places I have named are strong- 

 holds of the Fancy, even if not in the preponderant 

 manner that they were formerly. 



When we look at a wild canary and then at a high-class 

 Crested Norwich, Scots Fancy, or Yorkshire it is forced 

 home upon us that there must have been expended 

 by the olden breeders an infinitude of thought time, 

 patience, labour and expense m the selective breeding 

 and perfecting of their strains so as to give us the exceed- 

 ingly choice and beautiful specimens which grace the 

 show benches of the twentieth century. 



