lo/f. Canaries and Cage-Birds. 



farther the centre of the ellipse is from the base of the beak so will its value increase. Nothing 

 will compensate for a bad entrance : any defect there is fatal. The back of the crest is also a 

 very important part of it. If a young dark-crested bird be examined in the nest before there are 

 any indications of feathers, there will be observed at the back of the skull a light, crescent-shaped 

 mark, the rest of the crown being covered with black skin, indicative of the future colour of the 

 feathers. On this light-coloured spot feathers never grow, and if the head be examined as the 

 young quills present themselves, it will be seen that they sprout from every portion of the surface 

 except this, which remains permanently bare. We have heard breeders remark that such and such 

 a crest was a good one, only the bird had knocked out a portion of the feathers from the back in 

 putting its head through the water-hole. It is simply a popular fallacy : there never were any 

 feathers to knock out. The larger this pale spot, the greater the probability of an inferior back 

 to the crest, which ought to cover this naked place entirely, and can only do so by a proper 

 disposition of the feathers. Having only a small vacancy constitutes what is known as being well 

 " filled in " behind, and is more frequently the case in Buff birds than in Yellow, in which the 

 feather is comparatively so scanty as to cause this openness to be very discernible. A really good 

 crest on a Jonque is exceedingly rare, and we never yet saw one made up of the daisy-petal type 

 of feather worth looking at ; an entirely different formation here is imperatively necessary, or the 

 vacancy behind becomes a positive eyesore. We do not, as a rule, care to make any prominent 

 mention of negative points, particularly when they assume the character of the malformations 

 referred to in speaking of the toes and claws; but as there are so vsxdiWy pros and cons in a crest, 

 and as a really good one is not seen every day, reference to a few of the common defects may 

 assist in making clearer a description which, except to the initiated, must be somewhat obscure. 

 A good crest, then, should not stand up in the front, and, if a dark one, should show no light 

 feathers over the beak. This is a common defect in short-feathered crests. The Canary has the 

 power of setting up the feathers on his crown, and some " daisy " crests, as they are termed, though 

 extremely neat, are so short in feather that they can be fairly stood on end, displaying any defects 

 underneath in a most provoking way. The light feathers we refer to form no part of the crest, 

 but are a sort of protection to the nostrils which lie at the base of the beak, and when displayed 

 under the front of the crest are considered very objectionable ; but it will be evident that a 

 bird with a good frontage cannot display them, as it cannot lift up the weeping feathers in the 

 same way as it can the shorter ones. A good crest should not be narrow or pointed in front, but 

 every part of its circumference should be, as far as possible, equidistant from its centre. The idea 

 of an oval-shaped crest is not intended to convey the notion of a narrow front, only that its length 

 exceeds its width : the front must still be circular without any clipping away of corners. Neither 

 should a good crest be "tucked in" at the sides, by which is meant having the outer edges 

 broken or pinched-in behind the eyes, giving the crest the appearance of being formed of two 

 parts. It should not have any split or opening in the front, nor should the " centre " assume the 

 shape of a line dividing one side from the other, nor should it be a point from which diverge 

 two lines or partings in a backward direction right and left, destroying the appearance of 

 perfect radiation. Nor should it be without any centre, and simply a heavy tuft of feathers 

 falling smoothly over from back to front ; nor should it be a mop. Neither should it be 

 flat and exhibit no texture or feathery appearance, as if pressed out with an iron, which it will 

 be observed is the exact converse of falling over the head in a drooping form. It should not 

 be wider at the back than in the front ; nor should it be tilted up at the back, and carried 

 as if there were a danger of its sliding off; nor should it be shaped like an escutcheon, nor 

 be square at the back, nor have dexter and sinister corners twisted up as if having been put 



