Effects OF A Lizard Cross. 1S3 



adduced, we think the proposed cross about the very worst thing which could possibly be made, as 

 it would simply spoil both and improve neither. To " soften " the colour of the Lizard would 

 be to ruin it, while we are very confident no addition to the perfect development of its spangle 

 could be made by admixture with the hazy uncertain tick of the London Fancy. We need say 

 nothing as to the "bringing out the black ticks on the back" of our bird. It would certainly do 

 that, and give the breeder years of work to get them out again. A writer of the present day, Mr. 

 R. L. Wallace, falls into the same error. He says : — " Were I a regular breeder of this variety of 

 birds, I would not hesitate to cross them with a Lizard Canary occasionally — say once in five or 

 seven years. If this is not done I am afraid that the days of these lovely gems are numbered, and 

 that they will soon become extinct, for already the in-and-in breeding is telling with painful effect 

 upon their constitutions ; in fact, to quote the exact words of an old fancier, who observed to me, 

 in reference to that variety, not long ago — ' I would not bother with them ; they are all as rotten 

 as blown pears.' " This statement as to the condition of the bird we consider as unsound in 

 its' basis as is the assumed condition of the pomobgical simile. The promised advantage, an 

 improved constitution, is also a myth. Granted, for the sake of argument, a physical degeneracy ; 

 and granted, also, that it can be removed by one thorough cross, as laid down in " Pedigree 

 Breeding ; " where would the improved constitution be if, at the end of every five or seven 

 years of persistent close in-breeding, which would be the only way to eradicate the Lizard in 

 that time, it became necessary to cross again with the Lizard to repair the again impaired con- 

 stitution ? Some breeders, when in a strait or for experiment, may have been tempted to cross in 

 the Lizard, but have been sorry enough afterwards and glad to cross it out again. Mr. Brodrick 

 never had any blood other than that of its own kind imported into his birds for five times seven 

 years, except on one occasion, referring to which he says : — " I have not one bird this season fit to 

 sit for its portrait, having only bred two birds, mealy cock and hen, of my own pure strain. These 



are spotless, but not good in colour ; the others, a cross from hens of 's, are all of them 



more or less spangled. I rather think he crossed with the Lizard two or three years ago, 

 and the result will be what I should have anticipated— ticked and spangled birds for many 

 generations." 



Every detail with respect to vioidting as given in our Lizard notes applies strictly to the 

 London Fancy, every precaution that ingenuity can devise being necessary to prevent any 

 accidental shedding of the flight or tail feathers, the value of which for show purposes is very 

 evident. 



The practice of moulting the London Fancy Canary on cayenne diet cannot be said to 

 have become so general as with other varieties. Belonging to a class in which other standard 

 properties besides mere colour have great weight, if is not so dependent on what we may call 

 a forced development of this one property by adventitious aids, as are some of its kindred, to 

 enable them even to qualify for admission in a section in which colour reigns supreme. We 

 do not wish to be misunderstood on this point. Colour is, as we have all along endeavoured 

 to show, one of the gifts profusely lavished on this bird, being, and properly so, one of its 

 standard points ; but assuming it to be pure and rich to begin with, the old breeders do not 

 seem to care for the extraordinary increase in depth effected by the modern system of feeding — 

 a depth some of its most critical admirers think interferes with the well-balanced harmony they 

 could discover in the older form of the bird which has satisfied them with its many beauties for 

 so long. Colour is, to the London Fancy, pretty much what it is to the Lizard : in both it 

 is a necessity ; but cayenne cannot make a Lizard, and most certainly cannot make a London 

 Fancy. The question of feeding is really in the hands of the breeders ; they are the men to 

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