170 Ca.v.hr/es a.vd Cage-Birds. 



cayenne system requires some modification. From some cause which we cannot explain, for at 

 present we are to a great extent cognisant only of cause and effect, though we think our tlieories 

 as to the rationale of cayenne feeding as expounded in Chapter X. are near the truth, notwith- 

 standing some links in the chain may be missing, the Lizard does not behave in a uniform way 

 under the cayenne regimen. We know we have capsicums at one end of the system and a blaze of 

 colour at the other, but the food appears to be very uncertain in its action. With only one result 

 we have now to do ; the general results have been witnessed for two or three years, and have been 

 considered on the whole eminently satisfactory. We refer to the consequences of extra liberal 

 treatment ; under which the plumage of the Lizard sports in a way nothing in the appearance 

 of its nest-feathers would seem to warrant, and which sports or alterations in the character of the 

 second feathers have never been known to occur under any of the old systems of feeding, in which, 

 whatever may have been the constituent elements of any particular breeder's moulting-diet, 

 cayenne pepper certainly never occupied a prominent place. 



Mr. T. W. W. Fairbrass, of Canterbury, one of the most successful breeders of this variety, 

 brought about some remarkable results by what proved to be over-dosing. Birds with perfect caps, 

 or so nearly perfect as to be thought by him eligible for the severest competition, and therefore 

 worthy of special care and the daintiest of dainty meats, were found, when moulted, to be foul- 

 marked and " run " into the neck in a most perplexing manner, at the same time that the spangling 

 had lost its distinctness and melted into a complete fog. The latter feature might perhaps be 

 accounted for to some extent in this way: a "mossy" back, particularly in a Golden bird, ivould 

 appear more cloudy and " run " under cayenne diet, inasmuch as the yellower portions of the 

 feather would come out still redder, and so render the whole more hazy and indistinct ; but the 

 decided " running " of a previously perfect cap could be attributed only to the agency of the food, 

 though in what way we cannot profess to explain. There is really an art in feeding a Lizard 

 judiciously, much the same as in feeding Cinnamons. Only sufficient should be given to bring 

 out the beauties of the bird in stronger relief, and no more. No judge would allow his eye to be 

 carried away by colour alone ; nor, in fact, is the dull brick-red we have observed on some birds by 

 any means the tone a breeder likes to see. Brighten up the cap, by all means, and polish the 

 fringing of the spangles, but do not feed to such an extent as to materially affect the darker 

 plumage, and in so doing utterly destroy the tone of the lighter, and with it the character of the 

 entire bird. This caution, however, applies chiefly to Golden Spangled birds, as the Silvers seem 

 to revel in the warm food, and the more of it they assimilate, the more beautiful they become. 



We do not care in a work like this to give more than a passing reference to any of the 

 malpractices in which some exhibitors of the Lizard are adepts, for converting a blemished bird 

 into an apparently perfect one, but which we hope are passing away before increasing light and 

 improved education. We will not say that this Canary is more tampered with than any other in 

 proportion to its many show-points, or that Lizard morality is of a lower order than the average 

 status of that flexible virtue ; but we know that ticks are extracted from foul caps, and patches too 

 large for extraction are treated to an application of a solution likely to remove the little difficulty 

 in the way of colour. An irregular margin at the back or a cap inclined to run is "eased a bit" by 

 the scissors, and that trifling objection smoothed over satisfactorily. That homely commodity, 

 candle-snuff, mixed with a little of its native tallow, will do wonders in removing the unpleasant 

 effect of a bald face, a white covert, or an unseemly grizzle in any of the larger feathers, unless the 

 defect be so palpable as to require the offenders to be extracted or cut off close to the stump, in 

 which case high art can introduce others of approved quality into the hollows of the old quills, 

 while a careful use of nitrate of silver can do all that may be necessary to a white beak, legs, or 



