124 CAyARTES AND CaGE-BiRDS. 



The breeder will have to content himself with very slow progress, and even approxima- 

 tions to what he desires must be accepted and made the most of. Where we found that any 

 particular pairing had the direct effect of fixing the point aimed at, we should again pair the 

 birds so bred, either among themselves, by selecting cocks and hens from the same nest, or 

 with their own father or mother, or with others from nests in which similar results had been 

 obtained, and so endeavour still further to unite the various streams and concentrate the same 

 tendencies in one channel. This would, it is obvious, necessitate some departure from the 

 regular beaten tracks of every-day practice, but it must not be forgotten that the object desired 

 lies wide of the line of ordinary sailing, and must be followed through such channels as lead 

 to it. The ship will occasionally make heavy weather and be blown off the land apparently 

 right out of her course, or drifted hither and thither by undercurrents not laid down in the 

 chart; but the breeder must not be discouraged by anything of this kind. The knowledge of 

 the existence of difficulties only acts as an incentive to exertion to a disciplined mind; and now 

 that we have pointed them out, we hope that many a fancier will endeavour to overcome them 

 by thoughtful care, and that some who have spent much time and money and patience in 

 trying to build with useless materials upon a sandy foundation will follow our advice and make 

 their own bricks, and become their own architect and builder. If batch after batch of bricks come 

 out of the kiln worthless, try a fresh seam of clay. 



We prefaced our remarks on this subject by saying that the chief difficulty lay in the beginning, 

 and it will be seen that it is so, our contention being to show that it arises from the uncertain 

 character of the raw material we have recommended as the nucleus of a stud. The question 

 naturally arises, Could no other more reliable base be chosen than the pure-bred Norwich 

 Canary, with its predilection for sporting in all conceivable forms of variegation } Could we not 

 graft on to the rich Clear Norwich, from which the green has been eliminated, the even marking of 

 a variety not so much given to throwing Pied offspring.' We have been shown that this erratic 

 character of Norwich variegation is at the root of the difficulty, almost defying control ; and could 

 we not, therefore, temporarily sacrifice some family trait — colour, shape, anything in fact— if by 

 so doing we can introduce, from some other source, fixity of marking, and then rely upon the 

 potency of the Norwich blood to recover, gradually and cautiously, the sacrificed features .? We 

 think so, and would go for marking to the Yorkshire variety. This is not the place to 

 describe minutely its leading characteristics, which will be gone into in detail when we 

 come to treat fully of this Canary ; but it will answer our purpose now sufficiently if we say 

 that it is not one of the colour birds, but has been for generations bred for shape and marking 

 only; and, as a natural consequence, and a living demonstration of our theory of development 

 of colour, heavy, irregular variegation, the companion of colour, is seldom found in it in excess ; 

 the birds which comprise the " Ticked and Variegated " classes of Yorkshires at our shows being 

 either merely slightly ticked, or else ivell-marked, and showing evidence of careful breeding in this 

 direction, though slightly variegated by having trifling body-marks, which, as we explained in our 

 chapter on technicalities, is the boundary-line between marking proper and variegation. This is 

 the variety to which we referred in the early part of the chapter, as containing an established fixed 

 strain of Evenly-marked birds, and we propose to utilise it for our purpose. We need not refer 

 again to the general routine to be observed in following up this cross, from which, we may 

 add, we have seen some excellent results. The principle is the same, though the difficulties 

 to be overcome may be of a different character, and the reader will have followed us to little 

 purpose if he is not able to apply our general principles to special circumstances. We do 

 not think it matters much whetlier Marked Yorkshires be hens, or whether the marking be 



