130 Caa'aries axd Cage-Birds. 



usually adopted in breeding Plainheads. What is wanted is crest, bear in mind ; and since we must 

 have crest, just as we viitst elsewhere have marking or any other leading feature, we must furnish 

 the elements at all hazards. Once obtained, it then rests with the breeder to restore and maintain 

 a balance of other properties by the exercise of skill in his art. 



Commending the consideration of these three first principles, we will call them, of crest- 

 breeding to the reader, we must at the outset caution him against the mistake of supposing that he 

 has nothing else to do but to go to the Crystal Palace Show, open his purse-strings, and at once 

 commence to breed Crests of merit equal, or anything like equal, to those he has purchased. We 

 wish we could show in more emphatic terms than those at our command how this is the rock on 

 which so many come to grief. Every one who can afford it naturally purchases the best stock he 

 can, and wisely so ; but our advice would be not always to buy the specimens most perfect at all 

 points, unless for exhibition purposes, but rather to invest in such as show extreme development of 

 the one point desired, remembering that our rule is a sound one — when a cultivated ideal reaches 

 its zenith it must be maintained, or it will assuredly decline, and the fire slowly burn itself out 

 unless fed with necessary fuel. 



We will follow the same plan, then, that we adopted in our chapters on Plainhead breeding, 

 and show how to lead up ab initio to a satisfactory issue, rather than recommend playing with 

 ready-made birds — a course which would, in a season or two, confirm the soundness of our position 

 in a way the experience of many can endorse. We have already shown that the crest can hardly 

 be considered as native to the variety unless the old Norwich " Turncrown " be accepted as the 

 original type — a fact which the existence of crests among the Continental song-birds, the probable 

 founders of the family now so extensively domiciled amongst us, perhaps goes to support; and also 

 that the present popular style of crest seems to point to its having been obtained elsewhere than 

 from the neat head-gear of the ancient Flemish bird. We shall go at once to a bird differing 

 from the Norwich Canary in many essential particulars : we refer to the Lancashire, or, as it is 

 generally called, Manchester Coppy; and the verdict so frequently returned, in brief but concise 

 terms, by many a jury who " sit upon" the merits of modern Norwich crests — viz., " Coppy-bred " — is 

 sufficient evidence that we are not far out in our latitude in determining the geographical position 

 of the pit from whence they were quarried. These mines have been more extensively worked of 

 late years than in the olden time, for the Crested bird of ten years ago is not the bird of to-day by 

 a long way. (,We shall not describe the Coppy in more detail than we did the Yorkshire ; but when 

 we say that it is a giant, stands very erect, is inclined to be coarse in feather, is clear in colour, 

 and has very little of it, it will be seen that we enumerate a list of properties we wish to have as 

 little to do with as possible. Its crest, however, which is either clear or grey as regards colour, for 

 size, shape, and every desirable property, stands alone, and this we want to obtain as much of as 

 we can ; so we know our work, and must be prepared to thread a few somewhat intricate mazes in 

 following up our object. We have an infallible rule for finding our way into or out of any maze or 

 labyrinth, and no complication of sinuous paths ever yet caused us to lose our way. It is this : 

 keep tlie right hand to the wall, and you will make your way to the centre at the first attempt. Try 

 it. And in crest-breeding keep your right hand to the wall ; never take it away, never lose sight 

 of crest ; and though you may have to travel some distance, sometimes being apparently near the 

 centre, and then obliged to turn away, yet keep the hand to the wall, and you mnst land. 



In selecting our Coppy let it be chosen for crest properties entirely; but if the bird show less 

 size, less roughness of feather, and less Coppy points generally than are cultivated by the fancier 

 of this variety, it will be so much the better for our purpose and we shall have the less foreign 

 matter to eliminate. It is not practically of any moment whether the bird be cock or hen; but the 



