136 CANARIES 



up a picture that has only to be seen once to be for ever 

 remembered. A properly trained Belgian knows what 

 is expected of it, and as it shows its quality one can 

 imagine that it is conscious of the admiration it creates. 



Points in Breeding. 



The one point above all others which gives trouble 

 to the breeder of Belgians is the keeping of the substance 

 of shoulder and depth through the chest with a long, fine 

 neck and sleek head. Immediately one begins to secure 

 increased substance of shoulder and depth " through the 

 heart," as the old fanciers called it, the neck and head 

 seem to thicken and shorten, and the birds seem to 

 possess less nerve. To increase substance double buffing 

 has been resorted to by some, but it is not to be advocated 

 because of the thickening of the neck of which I have 

 just spoken. If there is loss of size it should be regained 

 by mating very stout-shouldered, long-bodied buff cocks 

 to the largest yellow hens in the stud. By such mating 

 size is increased, and there is no loss of length of drive 

 or fineness of feather. Some writers have talked of mating 

 rough-feathered birds with small, smooth ones. It is a 

 mistake. Exhibition Belgians cannot be bred from small 

 birds. 



The greatest difficulty of the Belgian breeder is the 

 combination of size of body with the long, fine neck. 

 Small birds will neither give him big bodies, nor long necks. 

 Fineness ? Yes, he will get that but in a form that is 

 useless. It must not be taken that I would never double- 

 buff. There may be times when it is absolutely needful 

 so to do, but I strongly advise that when such mating is 

 imperative the birds selected for double-buffing should 

 have plenty of neck, length of body, and length of leg. 



Short legs aud stout waists often go together. They 

 are two bad faults and should be avoided when mating 

 birds. A short-legged bird is generally short in neck and 

 body, thus you have three faults. Long necks, long legs, 

 and long bodies, described as " length of side," usually 

 go together and birds possessing these properties are most 

 valuable. True, these long birds are often a bit deficient 

 in shoulder, but that can be made up by careful selection 

 of breeding stock. The long-sided birds are generally 



