Modern Cinnamons a Cross. 141 



dealing with birds of shape or position or distinctive plumage. We have, certainly, referred to the 

 distinctive plumage of this bird, but have done so more with the intention of calling attention to 

 one peculiarity, viz., its colour, than with any idea of classing it with those having many 

 peculiarities, each in itself a feature of consequence. It was open to us to have ignored the bird 

 altogether as a separate variety (for it is now very seldom found pure and free from some cross, 

 unless it be in the pit districts in the North, where, next to a mule-breeding strain of hens, the 

 " Dun " is still the bird of birds), and to have referred only to the effects of crossing it with such 

 pure tribes as we may from time to time treat of; but we prefer to give it the place we consider it 

 deserves, and discuss both its general character, and, so far as we can without departing from our 

 plan of arrangement, the effect produced upon it by being crossed with other varieties, as well as 

 the effect it produces upon them. 



Considering it, then, as a colour-bird, we accept the modern Norwich type as a much 

 improved form of the old bird. It is not so very many years ago since it was comparatively rare, 

 and the winning strain was supposed to be in very few hands. How the colour had been so 

 intensified was a matter of some speculation, but the great family resemblance the new bird bore 

 *to the Norwich variety, and the unmistakable stamp of the Variegated birds, soon indicated the 

 fountain from whence came the hot blood. The Variegated Cinnamon of that day was essen- 

 tially a bird of shape and markings, until some of the southern breeders, by sending their notion 

 of a Variegated bird northwards, opened the eyes of the admirers of colour to the fact that 

 there were other valuable crosses besides birds of the Position school. Many of the Heavily- 

 variegated birds exhibited were hens, and, being claimed or sold into the North, soon told a tale 

 v/hich, in the course of a few years, has produced the remarkable Cinnamon of to-day, capable of 

 developing almost as much colour as the Norwich bird itself. Every one who is learned in Canary 

 lore will remember the consternation caused in the ranks of the Cinnamon breeders — a con- 

 sternation almost amounting to demoralisation — when Mr. Bemrose added to his then mysteries 

 the still greater mystery of two or three Cinnamons which put competition at defiance. Great 

 discoveries have been made by accident or while in quest of something other than the thing found, 

 and it may be that it was when in search of variegation the new vein of colour was struck. In 

 describing it we say, first, that in size and shape it is almost the counterpart of the Canary with 

 which it has been so systematically allied, though there is more than the average disparity between 

 the size of the Buff and Yellow birds, the former being, as a rule, much the larger, and carrying its 

 size without the corresponding increase in coarseness of feather which would be looked for in any 

 other fine-feather variety. The colour of a highly-improved specimen is, in the Jonque, a brilliant 

 chocolate, the deepest shade being found on the top of the head, where it is sometimes of a blackish- 

 brown. There is some very pretty pencilling on the cheeks, and the back, like that of a Green 

 Canary, has always more or less of a striped appearance, owing to the saddle-feathers being much 

 darker near the midrib than on the margin. Excess of this marking is considered a defect, and a 

 uniform distribution of the chocolate, forming what is known as a " level " back, is one of the 

 strong points of a show-bird, though it is extremely difficult to get the brilliant colour without the 

 pencilling. The throat and breast should show none of this, as any one who has paid attention to 

 the character of the breast-feather of most Self-coloured Canaries will understand. It is here, 

 perhaps, that the purest and brightest shade of colour is to be found, the whole surface of the 

 breast being unsullied by a single streak, and being free from the comparative dulness caused by 

 the darker midribs of the saddle. Here, too, the rich Norwich blood seems pent up, inducing a 

 ruddy glow startling in its warmth when compared with the quiet old-fashioned vest of but a few 

 years ago. Where the breast-feathers merge with those of the side, it is not unusual to find in the 



