1 62 Calvaries and Cage-Birds. 



be bright and glittering, without any trace of the mealy edging sometimes seen in doubtful forms 

 ■ of Jonque feather even in Clear Norwich Canaries. Some Golden Lizards do show this, and it is 

 not uncommon to see Jonque hens with a decided silver lacing. Such will always be found to 

 be very close in feather, and to possess, in fact, strongly-marked buff proclivities ; still they are 

 Jonques, but only indifferent forms, and are valuable as breeding stock, accordingly as they 

 may be known to possess certain traits which may be in the blood but not on the surface, but not 

 representative types of the Golden Lizard. And in the same way a Silver must be a Silver, and 

 should exhibit its spangling in connection with every property supposed to attach to the buff 

 form of feather. There is a profusion of wealth in a good specimen. Nothing can exceed 

 the beauty of the spangling with its clear silver edge, while the natural compactness of 

 the plumage exhibits the chains of "moons" in a way not always discoverable in the Jonque. 

 Skilful feeding, too, brings out its colour in a remarkable way, giving the bird an appearance 

 as if warp and woop were of different shades, the plumage in places shining like a shot-silk with 

 every movement of the bird ; and the neck with its tiny yet distinct spangling, on which the 

 shape of every feather is as distinctly defined as on the neck of a grey parrot, has no equal in any 

 Canary. 



Before dismissing the subject of spangle, we may remark that some old fanciers speak of a 

 tribe of birds which must now be extinct even if it ever existed. We refer to what are occasionally 

 called Blue Lizards, respecting which a fancier, who has been a careful observer and a student of 

 the family history for nearly forty years, writes, " The Blue Lizard of former days I never see now." 

 Whether such a variety was ever recognised we cannot say, but we would suggest that what may 

 at one time have been known as Blue Lizards were probably only Silvers spangled in excess. 

 And this leads us to our closing remark on this feature. Excess of spangling, when it assumes 

 the form of diminutive moons and over-development of lacing, produces a hazy indistinctness 

 technically termed "moss," which is perhaps the most dangerous shape in which it can appear, 

 as any disposition to obliterate the dark eyes of the spangles means doing away with the dark 

 centre in the feather which produces them, and thus destroying the very life of the variety. 

 Write down a " mossy " back as being to spangle what a bald face or other tendency to " running " 

 is to the cap. 



The wing of the Lizard plays an important part in its show economy. " Black, home to the 

 quill," is one of the oldest laws of a very old code, and indicates, broadly, what should be the 

 general character of the feather. It is not, however, intended as a rigidly exact definition so much 

 as to convey the idea that black or some form of black is the standard colour, and that white or any 

 tendency thitherward is forbidden. The web and flue should be " black, home to the quill," but 

 the shaft or quill itself is only black for as much of its length as is exposed, its base being nearly 

 as white as that of any ordinary clear flight-feather. A reference to Fig. 52 and the coloured 

 illustration will show that the inner flights in particular are margined with a paler shade of colour 

 (a feature common to all dark wings, whether Green, Cinnamon, or anything else), and the beauty 

 of the wing, so far as this arrangement is concerned, consists in the darkness of the web and stalk 

 and the rich character of this marginal edging, which is more or less brilliant as it is found in the 

 Gold or the Silver form of the- bird. Notice, further, that the extreme outside margin of the 

 primary flights or ten outer feathers is also fringed with an edging of colour for some small 

 portion of its length, but it should not extend so far as that part of the feather where the narrow 

 portion of the web is so much narrowed as to cause the stalk to become almost the actual margin ; 

 else, when the wing is closed, the effect of these minute edgings of colour being placed side by side 

 will be to give the appearance of a transverse band of light colour extending in the direction pf 



