CHAPTER XIX. 



BREEDING LIZARD CANARIES. 



Although it is considered a difficult thing to breed a perfect Lizard, it is not more so than to 

 produce any other bird in perfection. We have before adverted to the fact that average quality, 

 now-a-days, is another name for a high degree of excellence, and that the exceptional birds we now 

 and then see are at no one's command, though they are within the possible reach of every intelligent 

 breeder. We think there is every encouragement for the fancier in commencing to breed this 

 interesting variety, because its leading features may be said to be fixed, and he has not, as in some 

 cases, to deal with properties so fickle and erratic as scarcely to be under any control whatever. 

 He will not find himself pairing Clears and producing Pies ; mating marks, and looking in vain for 

 their reproduction ; nor will he find any of the many seemingly unaccountable results which follow 

 ploughing in some of the fields of the Canary fancy. If he pair Lizards he will obtain Lizards, 

 capped and spangled, and from any given quantity of genuine material will obtain a greater 

 proportion of satisfactory results than can, perhaps, be arrived at in any other direction, simply 

 because he will find himself working with elements constant in their action. Considering the 

 comparatively small number of Lizard breeders and the few birds bred, we think the per-centage of 

 high-class specimens exhibited is far in excess of those found in any other variety ; and to any 

 fancier anxious to commence with a reliable bird which will to an appreciable extent accomplish 

 what is asked of it, and is capable of being bred up to a high state of development through sure 

 channels, we say " go in " for Lizards. 



The general principles which should guide the breeder in the selection of his stock, and the 

 philosophy of its subsequent management in dealing with its fancy points, may be gathered from our 

 adaptation of the essay on " Pedigree Breeding" referred to in Chapter XIII., and the importance 

 of begi7ini7tg right will be manifest from the case cited on page 112. " It is the not beginning right, 

 this far too common plan, which stands in the way of success with scores of amateurs." Let the 

 selected parents be the most perfect in all points that can be procured, but, above all, let them be 

 from some reliable strain on both sides. This is the essence of a successful start. To disregard 

 this salutary advice is to begin in a way v/hich is certain to land the novice in a maze, from which 

 even a practised hand would require all his skill to extricate himself, but in which the amateur 

 would grope about in the dark and inevitably meet with the shipwreck of all his hopes. Even the 

 very best strains require attention to maintain their virtues unimpaired ; but so long as a beginner 

 finds he has not retrograded, made no leeway, he knows his whereabouts, and can beat up slowly 

 but surely in the required direction, confident in the strength of his resources ; but blown off the 

 land in his first essay, and his supposed good strain put back nobody knows how far or into what 

 impure channels, cap, spangle, colour, and every good property blown to the winds, he votes 

 Lizard-breeding a delusion, and gives up at once. We have said perfect in all points, but 

 remember that the most important are spangle and sound body-colour. These must be maintained, 

 at the same time that great care is exercised lest there should be deterioration in the cap ; and our 

 object here in so emphatically urging the necessity of obtaining stock of established character is, 



