Points of the London Fancy. 179 



The wing and tail feathers of the adult obviously require no further comment, unless it 

 be to note that in a show specimen they are not always found entirely black. This is 

 perhaps only referring to a show-point ; but all show-points are based on natural features, 

 their perfect development constituting a perfect show-bird, such as we have attempted to 

 depict so far as we have gone. We have referred to perfection and to approximate perfection in 

 body-feather, and to the same features in the original quills, but what we wish to direct attention 

 to now is not a congenital but an accidental blemish. The presence of lighter or darker quills 

 in the adult may arise from the accidental shedding of the nest growth, in which case the 

 renewed originally grey feather will be verging on white in the web, and only sufficiently 

 grey in the stalk to afford an inferential clue to its former character, while the renewed 

 originally dark quills will be, at the best, but a shabby grey. We point this out, not as part 

 of our work in describing what a show-bird ought to be, but to indicate that the line of 

 demarcation between approximation, however faintly remote, and positive blemish may be 

 defined to consist in congenital defect. Here also the parallel between the London Fancy and 

 Lizard is again apparent. 



One wing-feature remains to be noticed, in respect to which an amount of licence is granted 

 which would not be tolerated in the Lizard. Black bastard feathers are imperatively demanded 

 in the latter; but in the London Fancy, although they are considered most desirable and are highly 

 esteemed, they are not included in the category of wing-feathers, numbering eighteen, which must 

 be black, and therefore they may be white. Many otherwise perfect specimens exhibiting this 

 shortcoming — for such we consider it — which have come under our notice have been admitted to 

 honour under the dictum of professed London Fancy critics of a stern school, the acknowledged 

 exponents of the code of laws governing this ancient feathered community. 



The underflue, a feature of considerable importance, should be black in the Jonque, and blue- 

 black or slaty in the Mealy bird. It has a good deal to do with the body-colour, since it must be 

 remembered it is only the exterior portion of the feather which assumes the golden hue, and the 

 quality of this hue depends much on the quality of that portion of the feather hidden from sight 

 by the imbricated arrangement of the plumage. The more intensely black the flue, the more 

 brilliant will be the marginal edging of gold. This we pointed out, in general terms, in our 

 remarks on the source of colour in the Norwich Canary, where we showed that the Jonque is richer 

 in a variegated bird than in a clear specimen where all trace of black flue has vanished. The 

 same principle applied here suggests the value of the intensely black flue in maintaining a 

 correspondingly rich margin. We say nothing of the difficulty — that belongs to the province of 

 breeding. 



Beak, legs, feet, and claws should all be dark. An old standard of excellence before us says: 

 "Legs : for blackness ;" a more modern one says "whiter We agree with the old, and entirely 

 dissent from the new. When obtainable, this property is very desirable, but it is not often seen 

 when the body-colour is pure and spotless. In former days, when these birds were always more or 

 less spangled, there was not the same difficulty about the colour of the legs; and these two 

 features go far to exemplify what has been proved to be a chemical truth — that the component 

 parts of the entire covering of birds, whether feather or leg-scale, as well as the beak and claws, are 

 identical in their elements. We car»^ot, in the face of what we take to be physiological truths, 

 recommend that white shall be accepted as the standard in this respect, without at the same time 

 consenting to the sacrifice of brilliant body-colour on the ground of the undesirability of the ticks or 

 spangles which often accompany it. The difficulty of combating an obstinate feature has nothing 

 whatever to do with fixing a standard which, in demanding that the difficulty shall be overcome, 



