^2 Canaries and Cagf.-Birds. 



This portion of our subject has had rather a personal character, but we have detailed it as an 

 historical. fact, and as furnishing the first published account of the first chemical test to which these 

 ^ birds were publicly submitted, and their satisfactory passage through the ordeal. 



We next find these same birds figuring at the Crystal Palace Show, in February, 1872, by 

 which time our mutilated friend had grown a new tail, which every one said had been painted for the 

 occasion ; and though he was passed over as a suspicious character, some of his companions went 

 through their examination and obtained the diploma of V.H.C., which is perhaps a rather significant 

 comment on the knowledge of that day. The year 1872 died out, and the memory of these ill- 

 fated birds died with it, till February 1873 again brought round the Crystal Palace Show, when 

 to the astonishment of everybody, Mr. Edward Bemrose of Derby, one of the keenest fanciers of 

 the day, and a man on whom no one could lay the finger of suspicion, but who was the very friend 

 to whom we have referred as censuring us for having " anything to do with these dangerous birds," 

 brought out two specimens of the same school, which he asserted on his word of honour as a 

 gentleman he had moulted himself in his own house, and which owed their extraordinary colour 

 to nothing but the peculiar diet on which they had been fed. Despite Mr. Bemrose's dignified 

 asseverations, however, he left the Palace Show under the imputation of being in league with the 

 naughty men of Sutton-in-Ashfield ; but not before he had delivered himself of a promise, which 

 he fulfilled almost to the letter, that next season he would bring out, not two, but a string of 

 birds which he would send to every show in England, and with which he would take every prize, 

 from Whitby in September, round to the Palace Show again in 1874, and that when he had thus 

 vindicated his character he would give the secret to the world. 



And he kept that promise. Next season he was invincible, and the exhibitors in the Colour 

 section of the Canary family lay under his feet. Some accepted their defeat like men, and others 

 writhed and wriggled like worms. In some directions confidence began to grow, while the now 

 historical birds fearlessly travelled the country. In others the opposition was bitter, and every 

 means that blind prejudice or petty interest could devise was called into operation in the 

 endeavour to injure their reputation. But the climax was reached at the great Norwich Show, 

 held in St. Andrew's Hall in October of the same year 1873, on which occasion several of the 

 Norwich breeders protested in a body against the genuineness of a consignment of these birds, 

 which, under our own judging, had taken almost every prize within their reach. From among 

 a large number seven were selected for analysis, of the result of which we append a copy. It 

 was our lot to be connected with similar birds on 'Osx&vc first examination by a qualified analyst, 

 and we were officially concerned in them in our capacity of judge on this the last ordeal they 

 were ever to undergo, and which established their reputation on a basis nothing could ever after- 

 v/ards shake. 



County Analyst's Office, 



Eastern Counties' Laboratory, Norwich, October 17th, 1873. 



Certificate of Analysis 

 (>f Seven Ca.iaries. 



From the Bird Show in St. Andrew's Hall, Norwich. 

 Mark. y° "^ ^^ 40 5_4 88 .3 



S 7 23461 



I hereby certify that, in the presence of the Chairman of Committee and other representative persons, I have examined 

 these birds with a view to ascertain the presence of artificial colouring matter upon their plumage. 



My opinion is that no artificial colour has been used. (Signed) FRANCIS Button. 



Shortly after this the secret began to ooze out, and the first use made of it by some who 

 had been loudest in their denunciation of the new school of birds was to sc// it, which was not 

 discovered until one, smarter than his fellows, boasted of having netted ;^5o by the sa/e of a^yV. 



