122 Canaries and Cage-Birds. 



correct and based on sound premises, we should select birds which, as regards the body, fulfilled all 

 the requirements of Clear birds, although the bond fide marking on them was not strictly even, but 

 was really marking, as technically understood, and nothing more — that is to say, we should not 

 hesitate to breed from birds having nothing further than one good eye- mark, or good eyes and only 

 one wing, or any similar defective arrangement of the feathers we do want, provided only there 

 were the entire absence of those we do not want. Birds having eye-marks only, or wing-marks 

 unsupported, we should regard as valuable material so long as they were clear in the body ; and 

 even these will, when paired together or with absolute Clears, throw quite sufficient irregularly-pied 

 birds to severely try the patience of the most patient breeder. We need scarcely say that birds 

 showing all the desired points in a high degree of perfection would of course be valuable allies, but 

 it may be accepted as a fact that the greater the amount of the marking, the greater the risk of 

 reverting to the variegated form ; and we know that this risk is so great that we would, in 

 beginning, /r^i?r breeding from the lesser degree of marking and take our chance of getting it 

 reproduced in an improved form, to breeding from birds in which the heavier marking would be 

 almost certain to land us in a wilderness of blotches and irregular patches. Unevenly-marked 

 birds such as we have referred to are not difficult to find. They frequently occur in large stocks, 

 and, not being exhibition birds, are not generally much valued, and the breeder who is on the look- 

 out for them will be able, in the course of a season, to pick up many such. These opportunities 

 should not be neglected, always having due regard to the quality or character of the marking, and 

 not gathering up indiscriminate rubbish, but neat birds, free from objectionable features and 

 showing some one desirable point clearly developed. 



This, we think, will show the description of raw material we should select, and our reasons for 

 so doing ; and any one who has rushed into breeding Marked birds in a blind faith in the like- 

 producing-like creed will admit that we have not one whit exaggerated its difficulties nor made one 

 mole-hill into a mountain. We know only too well what it means and how it is usually set about; 

 and though a slice of luck may occasionally accompany a turn of the wheel of fortune, or nearly 

 the whole hand turn up trumps, yet we know how hit-or-miss breeding ends in the long-run. 



This carefully-selected stock will require equally careful pairing; and in doing so we should, at 

 starting, make colour a secondary consideration — that is, we should not for one moment allow any 

 rule as to pairing Jonque and Mealy, or vice versd, to interfere with our main object, which is 

 marking. If we found the necessary combinations existing in the opposite forms of colour, well 

 and good, but we should not be diverted from our purpose for the sake of keeping up perfection of 

 colour or feather. We fully recognise the truth that "extremes are dangerous," and would certainly 

 do our utmost to maintain these desirable requisites ; but marking we want, and marking we must 

 have — note particularly the "must" — with colour, if possible, but marking at all events. And 

 bearing in mind that while we are endeavouring, by mating marks, to concentrate in one channel 

 the tendency to produce them, as we are, at the same time, concentrating two forms of development 

 of native green, we should be very careful to avoid pairing two Heavily-marked birds, lest the com- 

 bination of two streams of Green blood should cause an overflow on the body: we would mate a 

 Heavily-marked hen with a Clear cock, and the opposite. Here we could mate Jonque and Mealy, 

 and maintain feather. Very lightly marked birds we would pair ; but not if both had dark legs, 

 or we should not be astonished to find a speedy reversion to heavy variegation. Birds with 

 eye-marks only we would couple, or we would pair eye-marks with wings. An odd wing is 

 very apt to be repeated, but Knowing how certainly heavy wings will produce what we don't 

 want, we would prefer one wing, if containing only three or four dark feathers, and run the 

 chance of getting a neat V. We should not be disappointed if we obtained a lot of odd 



