72 CAyARIES AND CaGE-BiRDS. 



made from them ; and the question at once arises, How are they to be distinguished from the 

 cocks? If the fancier has been in the habit of spending much time among his birds, the greater 

 part of them will have declared themselves ; for the cocks begin to sing in their way at a month 

 old, and some precocious youngsters even earlier. But he must learn to distinguish them by other 

 signs. In some varieties the plumage is a slight guide ; and in the case of moulted birds, of 

 any variety, the brilliancy of the plumage alone is an almost unerring indication. But it is one 

 of those things which can only be learned by experience. Where there is a marked difference in 

 form and structural points, or in the general character of the plumage, verbal description becomes 

 easy, and a novice can readily learn from it. For example, we think that any one who can write 

 his own language could not fail to describe the difference between a cock and hen in game fowls, 

 so that a child could not possibly mistake the one for the other. It is not so, however, with some 

 birds, and the best judges are liable to be deceived in certain instances. The difference between 

 the appearance of the sexes in some varieties of the Canary is so slight, that although an 

 experienced eye can detect it, it is not easy to define clearly in what that difference consists. All 

 knowledge of this kind is comparative ; and if we say, speaking of any one feature, that in the 

 cock it is found larger or broader, or differs in any other respect from the corresponding feature in 

 the hen, we do not see how that conveys any very definite idea, if the same property, as it exists 

 in the hen, has no place in the mind of the person we are endeavouring to teach. We are aware 

 that when two objects are placed before the eye, a comparison between relative properties can 

 then be instituted ; but what we mean is, that it is only by long acquaintance that the abstract 

 idea of what is the ruling form can be so impressed on the mind that we are able to recognise it at 

 a glance, without having some other form placed before us at the same time to enable us to arrive 

 at a conclusion by actual comparison. If we say of a Canary that the cock is more sprightly 

 and vivacious than the hen, we must have a correct idea of the native sprightliness or vivacity of 

 either before we can recognise the bird by it, and hence draw a deduction. For this reason we feel 

 that the best description we can give will necessarily be obscure to the general reader in the 

 absence of living specimens to illustrate it, while the breeder himself will at first, perhaps, fail to 

 discover some of the more subtle distinctions. 



There will not be found much difference in regard to the colour of the nest-feathers of the 

 young birds of either sex in the flight, though the cock-birds generally show best in this respect, 

 and especially the Yellows, where the brighter shade of colour is more discernible than among the 

 Buffs ; the use of which two terms is almost landing us in another digression, which we will avoid 

 by a simple general statement, that with the exception of one or two varieties of Canaries in which 

 the colour is certainly not that which a novice would call yellow or canary colour, or anything like 

 it — with these exceptions every bird in the flight, whether clear in colour or variegated with green 

 or a shade of green, will be found to be in its body-colour what we will, for the sake of simplicity, 

 call either yellow or white ; not exactly, perhaps, but sufficiently so to meet our description. The 

 yellower birds are what are technically known as "Yellows," and the whiter ones as "Buffs;" and we 

 say, in resuming the thread of our description, that though there is a difference in the colour of the 

 sexes even in their nest-feathers, it is not so easily seen in the Buffs or whiter birds as among the 

 Yellows, and is not at any time a good criterion as to sex at this stage of their growth. And as we 

 are verging somewhat on the domain of feathers, we may add that the colour of any bird in its 

 nest-plumage is not always a guarantee of its future excellence, any more than the absence of 

 colour indicates a permanent want. No fancier who knows what moulting means ever thinks of 

 disposing of young unmoulted stock, lest by any means he might unawares dispose of a gem in 

 the rough. We discard the colour test, then, as being unsatisfactory, and observe that shape, style, 



