176 Caxarif.s and Cage-Di!:ds. 



another, and again, as age creeps on them and they turn their backs on the show-world with 

 all its vanities and go down the hill together, they once more become so much alike that, 

 forgetting the middle period of their lives when, inflated with pride, each scouted the idea of 

 the remotest relationship with the other, they seem willing to say, " We were wonderfully alike in 

 our cradles, and are nearly as much so in our last days, and perhaps, after all, may be of the same 

 family-tree." Says the London Fancy, " Yes ; you are from a distant branch of my ancient race." 

 Says the Lizard, "Stuff! my nation was before London Fancies were;" and each, dropping his 

 wings, pipes his death-chant, while breeders wonder whether they are related and which is really 

 the foundation stem. 



We shall depart somewhat from the plan we have hitherto followed, and begin with the 

 London Fancy in its nest-feathers. We have already intimated that we shall have nothing fresh 

 to offer by way of special instruction as to general managem.ent, moulting, &c., and the reader will 

 be able to see as we go on how close is the probable relationship — so close as to invite the strictest 

 investigation in the direction we have indicated, an ultimate opinion on which he will have to form 

 for himself as to whether these two streams ever flowed in one, and, if so, which is the parent 

 river. 



The young bird in its nestling stage is so much like a nestling Lizard that the difference 

 between the two could scarcely be distinguished even by the most experienced. It has the clear 

 cap, the same dull greenish-brown body-feather, the black wings and tail, with pretty much the 

 same general character of detail even to the grey margin on the outside of the narrow web of 

 the premier flights, producing the identical effect of the pale transverse band referred to in our 

 notes on the Lizard wing ; and this description of the young bird will, apart from its serving to 

 show the resemblance between the two, suffice for our purpose. On its first moult the character 

 of the body-feather entirely changes, the dark nondescript green or brown giving place to a 

 brilliant orange ; now, in the most carefully-bred specimens, entirely free from ticks or dark feathers 

 of any kind, but in former years more or less ticked or spangled, the really perfect bird being 

 exceptionally rare. The dark flight-feathers as well as the bastard quills, of course, remain, and with 

 the dark tail form a very beautiful contrast to the rich orange of the body. This change we take to 

 be analogous to that supervening on the first moult of the Lizard, though the resulting effects may 

 have become so widely sundered in the lapse of two centuries as to appear superficially to have no 

 relation. Here, however, is the foundation of a metamorphosis which we think more likely to 

 have progressed in the direction of from dark to light, the line in which it always drifts, than in 

 the opposite way. The Lizard still has, after who knows how many, many years of persistent 

 endeavour to fix and enrich its dark plumage, a latent disposition to pale, every avenue of escape 

 requiring careful watching. The perfect development of either the dark spangled coat of the Lizard 

 or the light rich dress of the London Fancy, we can easily understand, is the work of extreme care 

 and systematic breeding, and we do not think that the presence of occasional light ticks in the one 

 or dark ticks in the other proves much for either side, since the argument /to and con is equally 

 cogent ; for if it be urged that the Lizard has a direct disposition to pale, and that there are not 

 wanting instances which could be adduced to show how colour and spangle have vanished very 

 rapidly, and, ergo, the London Fancy is the perfect development of this tendency, it might be 

 urged with equal force that since the fault of the London Fancy is a leaning towards ticks and 

 rudimentary spangle, ergo the Lizard is the perfected development of this feature. We think that 

 the fountain whence flowed these two streams is more likely to be discovered by following the 

 broader theory that, of two given forms of colour, one dark, but having a tendency to fade, and the 

 other light, with an inclination toward;; a darker form, the first would descend through a greater 



