126 



Canaries and Cage-Birds. 



recommend this cross with established Marked Yorkshire blood with great confidence, and need 

 scarcely remind the breeder that, in selecting birds for the purpose, he need not go to the extreme 

 type of Yorkshire shape for the material he requires. There are plenty of very neat hens to be met 

 with at our shows, which, though exact in marking, are perhaps too small, or in other ways come 

 short of the demands of the fancier of this variety, but are admirably suited for our purpose, the only 

 necessary condition required of them being that the marking shall have become so far a permanent 

 feature as to give fair promise of its being repeated in the cross, the nature of the work to be 

 effected and the probability of the steps in the process being more or less intricate, alike suggesting 

 the wisdom of having to deal with as few conflicting elements at one time as possible. But we will 

 not depart from the original proposition we gave as the enunciation of our problem — marking we 

 want, and marking we must have ; and whatever be the difficulties in the shape of foreign elements, 

 we must breed them out one by one so far as we can, and consider ourselves very fortunate if we 

 secure our point even at some sacrifice of minor properties. The position, briefly summarised, is 

 this : technical marking when accompanied by variegation is valueless, but, owing to the constitution 

 of our bird, it is only with extreme difficulty that the two can be separated, and the percentage of 

 success is so small as almost to amount to nil. We have exhibited as one solution of the difficulty 

 a process, which may be more or less tedious, by which order may be evolved out of this chaos, the 

 continually disturbing element being the latent tendency towards irregular variegation ; and we 

 have shown another solution in which the chief opposing force is difference in form. As in most 

 struggles, so in this : the tougher the work the more brilliant the victory. The former plan, when 

 successful, produces the most perfect birds at all points ; the latter, just in proportion as it may be 

 easier, gives us specimens in which, perhaps, the fastidious eye of a fancier can detect, not positive 

 blemishes, but a possible trace of some foreign family likeness in connection with the required 

 feature now beautifully grafted on the parent stock. Either plan has its advantages, and each 

 affords ample scope for the ability of the breeder. 



We furnish on the preceding page an illustration of the ornithological regions of the body 

 of a small bird, for explanation both of what has been advanced, and also for future general 

 reference. It is from " Brehm." 



