140 Ca.varies and Cage-Birds. 



which no other Canary, not having Cinnamon blood in its veins, possesses. That the bird is traceable 

 to the common stock we must take for granted, and we think its distinctive plumage is referable to 

 the peculiarity many wild birds possess of assuming a cinnamon garb. This is by no means a 

 feature of rare occurrence with many of our indigenous birds, such as the jackdaw, starling, 

 blackbird, goldfinch, greenfinch, redpoll, skylark, sandmartin, and others; and this colour 

 may have been prized and perpetuated in the case of this Canary by the selection of those 

 bearing it. We take it that this conjecture has a sound basis, referable as it is to a well- 

 authenticated natural phenomenon. The variety, when fixed, having probably little to recommend 

 it beyond the unobtrusive singularity of its originally homely plumage, would not become 

 a very popular favourite, and so would remain comparatively unrecognised and thrown into the 

 shade by the more strikingly beautiful varieties which engrossed the attention of the fanciers 

 of a century ago. Indeed, the bird appears to have been regarded with disfavour rather than 

 otherivise. In a very old book lying before us, containing a deal of sound information on 

 Canary matters, but which unfortunately has neither back nor title-page (and we are not sufficiently 

 versed in bibliography to fix its date), it is said, in a very quaint phraseology, in speaking of the 

 different varieties and referring particularly to Xhe pink eye, the hall-mark of the Cinnamon : — 



" Some are all Yellow, which are Cocks, 

 Some the Colour of Buff, & some of an Ash Colour. 

 Some have Red Eyes, & the Cocks of this Sort 

 Sing as well as Others, but the Hens are good for 

 Nothing at all, being always Dim Sighted, and can 

 not See to Feed their Young Ones (if Ever they 

 Should have Any) and so Starve the Whole Nest." 



Brehm also says, " such as have red eyes are weak ;" and Bechstein speaks of Canaries which 

 " have often red eyes and are not strong." True, neither Brehm nor Bechstein refer the red eye 

 directly to the Cinnamon ; but we know that none other has it, for although in some instances not 

 a trace of a single cinnamon-coloured feather is to be found in certain pink-eyed birds, yet they are 

 to all intents and purposes Cinnamon in character, having all the peculiar traits found only in the 

 family. There seems to be some doubt also as to what was meant by Ash-coloured Canaries, 

 though we take it to mean Dove-coloured. Hervieux, in his work translated and published in 

 London in 1718, speaks of "Ash-colour Canary-birds with red eyes," and also "Buff-colour 

 Canary-birds with red eyes," though he afterwards connects the red eye with almost every form of 

 colour in the most perplexing way, which would lead one to suppose that the Cinnamon must 

 have been crossed more extensively a century and a half ago than now. Brent, in his little treatise, 

 refers to this vague definition of colours and says, " The principal diff'erence consists in the names 

 given to the colours. For instance, what the translator of Hervieux, 1718, calls Ash-colour, 

 P. Boswell names Flaxen, and Buff is designated Yellow dim colour ; thus rendering the obscurity 

 of the first translator doubly confounded." Sufficient, however, is adduced to show that the red- 

 eyed Canaries of the olden time bore a bad character for stamina, rightly or wrongly, and hence, 

 probably, the bird which we imagine to have been the Cinnamon and nothing else did not rank 

 high in the fancier's estimation. 



But what do we find the bird to-day .' We have three types varying as widely as the 

 three stems on which the pink-eyed bird has been grafted — viz., the Norwich Cinnamon, the 

 Yorkshire Cinnamon, and the Belgian Cinnamon; some fanciers inverting the order in which the 

 two words stand, the last-mentioned being, in fact, almost always spoken of as the Cinnamon 

 Belgian. It is our province here to describe the first of these three forms, belonging as it now 

 does pre-eminently to the Colour section of the family — a section we purpose exhausting before 



