Varieties of Cinnamons. 143 



no other ideal in his mind, albeit the very bird he accepts as a type of the purest form is only one 

 of the many crosses which have resulted from grafting Cinnamon scions on other stocks; and no 

 flower of the show-room has been worked on so many bottoms. But, colour being the primary 

 feature, it will at once be understood why, in the pursuit of a fancier's fancy, that stem should be 

 selected in which flowed the strongest sap. Unlike the dark Self-coloured Green Norwich, with its 

 inborn disposition to sport and change to brilliant yellow, the Cinnamon is born a Cinnamon, and, 

 like the members of the estimable society whose name it once bore, its children follow in the 

 footsteps of their fathers, dressing in the same quiet garb with but slight variation. There is 

 occasionally found, even in the oldest and, therefore, we infer, purest strains most remote from 

 foreign taint, some slight tendency to break into a colour which, so far as it may be regarded 

 worthy to be called colour, is little more than a greenish-white, and, having nothing special to 

 recommend it, has never been deemed worth cultivation. To check such disposition, indeed, has 

 ever been the object of the Cinnamon breeder : to produce whole, sound colour is his aim, and 

 light feathers are as much his bite noire as is the obnoxious tick vexatious to the Norwich breeder. 

 The infusion of Norwich blood, however, renders this not always a matter so easy of accomplish- 

 ment as in the days of really pure Cinnamons, when the only departures from the self-coloured 

 form — which, bear in mind, was not crossed in any way for colour purposes — were to be found in 

 the variegated offshoots of crosses made for other purposes. But now we have not only the rich 

 whole-coloured bird known as Clear which, it need scarcely be explained, must here be regarded 

 as a technical term meaning clear from light or non-cinnamon-coloured feathers, but we also have 

 the variegated colour-ojfslioots thrown off" in working upwards from the Norwich cross. This gives 

 us, therefore, the key to a natural classification of what we call the modern Cinnamon, which is, 

 {a) Clear, (b) Variegated, always recollecting that the Clear bird is the self-coloured form 

 and that the order of progression is from light or parti-coloured up to dark, the two birds we have 

 described being the representatives of Class («). It must also not be forgotten that the original 

 Cinnamon which we have assumed to be defunct — practically, it is so — we are regarding only as a 

 base, having indelible traits, on which have been reared three superstructures, and that we are 

 dealing with the first of the three, the Norwich Cinnamon or Cinnamon Norwich, as representing 

 the bird from a colour point of view in harmony with our original plan of arranging the Canary 

 family in groups. 



We will dismiss Class {a), then, without further remark, and proceed to the Variegated, or 

 Class {b), which is subdivided into Variegated proper and Evenly-marked, the first including 

 every possible pied form, not being evenly-marked, from the bird which has but one light feather 

 in it down to that having but one cinnamon-coloured feather. Between these two extremes it is 

 obvious there exists every degree of variegation, its extent counting for nothing, though, as in the 

 Norwich, the greater the quantity of clean feathers and the less the green, the nearer is perfection • 

 so, in the Cinnamon, the larger the distribution of cinnamon colour and the fewer the light or 

 white feathers, the nearer the bird is to the goal. In judging a class, however, in which the 

 definition "Variegated" is meant to convey nothing further than its purely technical meaning and 

 no idea whatever of marking, the amount of variegation is not of so much value as the quality of 

 the colour which rules paramount. Slight ticks in an otherwise whole-coloured bird are easy to 

 detect, a frequent form being a very small patch on the back of the head, one of the many trials 

 which sorely exercise the minds of some fanciers. The safest way to inspect such birds is with the 

 hands deep down in the trousers pocket; for, if handled, these foul feathers are so apt to — for want of 

 abetter word we will say apt to come out. Canary and cage-bird morality, let us say here, even if it 

 be scarcely the right place, to its credit be it written, is governed by no fast and loose policy. W^ 



