T4.6 



CHAPTER XVII. 



BREEDING CINNAMON CANARIES. 



Note that we say breeding, not producing — a distinction with a wide difference. How originally- 

 produced we have endeavoured to investigate ; how to breed we will show. In the whole round 

 of Canary-breeding there is not a bird subject to such remarkable peculiarities as the Cinnamon, in 

 whose blood abides an influence so subtle as to make itself felt in a very astonishing way. Were 

 it not that these peculiarities are certain in their action arid invariable, they would prove as 

 perplexing to the breeder as their cause is puzzling. Instead of proceeding to enumerate them 

 in detail, we will begin by putting a case to which probably many a fancier will find a parallel in 

 his own experience. We will assume that a breeder of the variety, roused to enthusiasm by the 

 rich colour of specimens he may have seen in the show-room, and having heard of the potency of 

 a Norwich cross, has determined to import that blood as a means of bringing his birds up to the 

 standard of the day. He doesn't believe in working with ready-made stuff, but prefers to mix 

 his own paint ; and what more natural than that he should procure one or two of the richest 

 Jonque Norwich cocks he can find to pair with his Cinnamon hens .' He has gone on long 

 enough pairing Cinnamon with Cinnamon, and has bred birds beautiful enough in themselves and 

 apparently able to cope with anything he remembers to have seen, but has found himself a long 

 way from the front when his pet specimens have been compared with the celebrities of the year. 

 The Norwich blood is to perform the necessary transmutation, and his very best hens are paired 

 as we have described. His first nests rather surprise him : the young ones are nearly all Greens 

 or broken Greens, but never a Cinnamon has he. These Norwich cocks must have been bred 

 from a very strong Green strain surely .-' Try again. And he does try again, with the same result, 

 and again without producing a single cinnamon feather. The season is fast waning, and his room 

 is full of Greens, and many of them only very indifferent in colour, but his Cinnamons are still 

 in mihibus. All this comes, he thinks, from having neglected the advice given in a previous 

 chapter about ascertaining the pedigree of the birds before introducing a cross ; because it must 

 be the new cocks. He puzzles his brain over it till he can think of nothing else, and becomes a 

 silent man. The wife of his bosom, from whom he has never concealed anything since they twain 

 became one, begins to be uneasy, and wonders whether he has been accepting a little bill. It 

 isn't often she goes into his bird-room ; but she did yesterday, and there lay his diary full of 

 mysterious memoranda and a note about something "falling due" in a few days. The little affair, 

 when due, brings with it only a repetition of his disappointment. He has another Yellow bird, 

 however, a Norwich bird, or at any rate he bought it for such, and he resolves to try what it will 

 do, and pairs it with one of his Cinnamon hens. Hope has nearly died out of his breast, and he 

 awaits the " chipping " of this nest with some anxiety, but to his great delight finds there are at 

 least two or three pink-eyed young ones, which, while they puzzle him the more, lead to mutual 

 explanations and restored domestic confidence. The solution of the enigma is very simple. 

 Cinnamon blood cannot be introduced with direct results, except from the male side; or, to use a 



