Use of the Green in Producing Colour. 115 



are, possibly, entirely the result of selection in breeding, and are not native to birds in a wild state. 

 They are, therefore, properties which can be retained or lost, improved and made thoroughly 

 distinct in character, or allowed to deteriorate by neglect. 



The necessity which exists for working with two sets of birds, if we may so express it, may 

 make the work of breeding sometimes rather complicated ; but the pairing of the two produces 

 each in its beauty, and even here the principles of pedigree breeding can assist a thoughtful 

 breeder in directing the course of the channel in which he may wish any stream to flow. 



We will assume that to produce Clear Norwich birds is the aim of the breeder, and the 

 question is how to do it } Pair Clear birds in the way we have mentioned, and Clear offspring will 

 be the result. There may, perhaps, be one here and there not quite clear, but the tendency is 

 decided, and the direction of each succeeding season will be towards perfect and complete 

 uniformity of colour if everything of a contrary character be excluded. But, with this plan, 

 depth of colour will certainly decline. This then, evidently, is not what we want to be at, 

 and the inference is plain that we have begun at the wrong end. We have selected parents 

 in which are concentrated the tendencies of generations of families all bred and selected 

 for the one purpose of getting rid of the native green, which is, perhaps, only one form of the 

 paler colour we call yellow ; and we have been pushing this tendency still farther, and paling our 

 birds still more. In fact, we have begun just where we ought to have left off; our colours have 

 been carefully blended and toned down till the required shade has been obtained, and to maintain 

 this we cannot dilute further without loss, which must be replenished from some source or other. 

 We will go to the fountain for it, and remark that it may be laid down as a maxim worth 

 remembering that a breeder of high-class Norwich should never be without a good Green bird in 

 his room : not a dull, flat, smoky-looking Buff, but a brilliant Jonque Green, in itself a beautiful 

 bird, which we will for our present purpose consider in its character of a colour-fountain. We do 

 not say to beginners, commence with Greens and plod on patiently till they break ; that might 

 never be, though never is a long time : but it would certainly be a tedious process, and more 

 especially if the Greens come from a fixed strain not much given to sporting. This is where, 

 even at the very outset, it is desirable that something should be known of the constituent elements 

 of the material with which it is proposed to work. . A good Green will often be thrown by parents 

 themselves very lightly variegated, and well advanced in the journey up the hill Difficulty. It is 

 natural that such a bird should occasionally present itself, as the eradication of the dark self- 

 colour is not accomplished without an effort and a struggle on both sides ; and such are valued 

 accordingly as they emanate from a branch of a family more or less remote from a known starting- 

 point. Greens bred immediately from Greens may, as we have indicated, be reluctant to produce 

 anything else, and may hesitate before they unlock the door of the warehouse containing their 

 wealth of colour ; but a Green thrown by comparatively light parents is, in most cases, almost 

 running over with colour, which seems only seeking an outlet to diffuse itself through many 

 channels, all of which it will tinge with something of its own brilliancy. Mixed with itself it 

 probably would have a tendency to become more fixed, but poured out upon the rich yellow or 

 equally rich buff of a Clear strain, it adds to their lustre, and infuses fresh, vigorous, colour-blood. 

 This is called "taking a dip into the Greens," and the benefits to be derived are in proportion as 

 we dip into the rigJit kind of green at the right time and in the rigJit way. 



Now every breeder, if he have any claim whatever to the title, knows when he has this sort of 

 stufT in his possession. He is bound to know, because he has ground his paints in his own mill 

 and mixed them on his own palette ; and this is what we mean when we say that every bird in a 

 breeder's room ought to represent in a breeder's eye something more than it would to a casual 



