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CHAPTER XIII. 



BREEDING NORWICH CANARIES. 



In commencing to breed with a view to producing the highest class of Norwich Canaries, we 

 cannot too distinctly impress upon the mind of the beginner the importance of having a clear 

 notion of what he intends doing, and of following out some definite plan. Desultory breeding is 

 not breeding, but only an amusement that frequently goes by that name. We think we can best 

 explain our meaning by quoting from some articles on " Pedigree Breeding " which appeared in the 

 editorial columns of the Live Stock Journal and Fancier's Gazette from the pen of the greatest 

 authority of the day ; and our advice to every breeder is to study the whole series most carefully. 

 The papers open with reference to the popular idea of a "strain," and show what it is not and what it 

 is. They go on to enunciate the theory — not a mere theory, but the fact — that " resemblances have 

 a more or less strong tendency to be transmitted to posterity ; " and reasoning from the fact that 

 "in numerous cases in which no resemblance can be traced in children to the immediate parents, 

 a startling resemblance can be traced to the grandparent^, or even to ancestors still further back," 

 infer that " these resemblances are so transmitted beyond the next immediate step in the pedigree," 

 and lay down as a sort of starting-point the principle that "it is nearly certain that every feature 

 has a tendency to repeat itself, and would do so more or less were it not modified or counteracted by 

 other tendencies." We should like to have quoted the papers in their entirety, but must content our- 

 selves with selecting the leading features in as succinct order as we can, without breaking up a con- 

 nected line of argument. The writer goes on to say that " scientific breeding consists in throwing 

 the strength of all these tendencies into one definite channel — the causing the tendency of the great- 

 grandparents and the grandparents, as well as of the immediate parents to transmit peculiarities to 

 their descendants, to combine towards one object." Then, taking as an illustration the appearance 

 of a fifth toe in one or two chickens, in a variety in which that peculiarity does not naturally exist, 

 but which might have arisen from some remote taint, it is shown what might be done by breeding 

 from one of these chickens. " If one of these chickens be bred from, it is probable that a few of her 

 progeny, but still few, will also show this fifth toe ; the greater part, however, reverting to what we 

 may call the usual type of the yard. If we mate this hen to a cock showing the tendency in the 

 same way, the number of five-toed progeny vv'ill be somewhat increased ; but still, supposing there 

 is no appreciable taint in the yard, they will not be many, and the four-toed chickens they 

 produced will have little tendency to breed birds with five toes. But now suppose we select from 

 the chickens produced from these two five-toed parents a pair also five-toed, and breed them 

 together. We shall now find the tendency vastly increased — so much so, that very likely a full 

 half of the produce will be five-toed, and even those which are not will show an evident tendency 

 to breed five-toed birds. We have accumulated into one direction — that of producing five toes — 

 the transmitted powers of two generations — parents and grandparents. If we breed from this third 

 generation again, still selecting five-toed individuals, the tendency to produce the peculiarity will 

 be increased enormously, and in a generation or two more, a bird not five-toed will be as rare as 

 the five-toed specimens originally were. We have now what is called a strain, so far as regards 

 this one point of five toes ; that is, we have produced a race of birds which we can depend upon 



