142 Cai'^aries and Cage-Birds. 



very best specimens indications of stripes more or less decided in their pencilling; and where this is 

 the case it is invariably connected with rich warm colouring throughout the region of the waist. 

 When they are not present their absence is a tolerably reliable indication of the desire of the 

 Norwich blood to break bounds and tinge the waist with a lighter but very brilliant colour, which, 

 though not always discernible, is but one remove from yellow proper, and is as prejudicial to the 

 winning chances of a Cinnamon as a yellow waist is to a Green Yorkshire. A Cinnamon, in fact, 

 however rich in Norwich blood, must be true in colour whatever the depth of shade. It must also 

 be bright and glossy : mere depth of colour counts but little in the show-room if it be dull and 

 unpolished, requiring burnishing to bring out its true quality, and a good judge will allow a 

 balance of points in favour of shining silk as against a rusty coffee-coloured suit. The feathers of 

 the wings and tail are paler on the broader web than the rest of the bird, but the outer margin is 

 full of colour, and on its development and a good carriage depend much of the effect to be derived 

 from equal distribution. The underflue is dark ; beak clear, and legs and feet usually so, but 

 sometimes inclined to be dark. The thighs, we have omitted to mention, should be well clothed, 

 and the colour of the livery well maintained. All that has been said of the Norwich Canary 

 with regard to texture and compactness of feather attaches to the Cinnamon with equal force 

 as a necessary condition for an effective display of colour. 



The Buff bird differs from the Yellow with respect to colour more directly than does 

 the corresponding form in the Norwich. In the highest types of the latter the body-colour 

 of the Buff is, where most exposed, and even under the gossamer frosting, equally as rosy 

 as the purest Jonque ; but in the Cinnamon it is duller and of a different cast, even in the 

 old, unmixed — we were going to say unadulterated — strain, being softer and greyer, and 

 showing little real chocolate or cinnamon ; the entire bird, and more especially the hens, 

 being shrouded in a most delicate dove-colour, so quiet as at one time to have obtained 

 for these birds the name of Quakers. But, in mixing with the gay company of a world of 

 vanity and vexation of spirit, and feasting on its dainty meats, it has shown itself not averse to 

 marching with the times and throwing off its quaint attire, and appears now in a vestment which 

 perfectly bewildered the Fancy when the cayenne regimen first developed its latent beauty. We 

 do not wish to convey the idea that the Buff Cinnamon is not cinnamon-coloured, but simply 

 to call attention to the fact that, whereas in the improved Jonque the bird is in every part some 

 shade or other of the rich cinnamon, in the improved "fed" Buff the intensified colour is accom- 

 panied by a ruddy glow which is not so plainly a chocolate as some of the corresponding enriched 

 portions of the Jonque. This is most noticeable on the breast, which, in the Buff, is remarkably 

 fiery, contrasting strongly with the polished walnut hue of the breast of the Jonque when placed 

 side by side. On the top of the head, too, this is observable, despite the intensely deep brown, and 

 also on the scapular feathers, where the play of colour, assisted by the meal, is very pleasing. 

 This feature is, doubtless, an immediate result of the strong infusion of Norwich blood. Any 

 disposition to run light in colour in the waist or in the region of the vent or under tail-coverts is, 

 as in the Jonque, a weak point, and a single bond fide light feather — i.e., white in the shaft, flue, 

 and web — is a fatal defect in either form of bird. The level back which, in the Buff, shows less of 

 the streaky marking before referred to, and also the closest feathering, are indispensables. 



In order to explain the classification of Cinnamons it is necessary that we should assume that 

 the old form, the veritable Dun, is, for all practical purposes, non est, having been entirely sup- 

 planted by the type of bird we have described in detail, but which is a creation of only very recent 

 date, though now so firmly established and so universally recognised as the bird, that no other form 

 is tolerated in the show-room ; and a fancier of the variety, in referring to it by its generic name, has 



