1 86 Canaries and Cage-Birds. 



say they will or will not adopt it. Among them Mr. Brodrick, and also Mr. James Waller, of 

 London, who will in days to come be remembered as one of those who in troublous times sheltered 

 the bird and protected it from annihilation, have already declared against it. We are not quite 

 sure whether Mr. Brodrick ever did really bow the knee to the great Juggernaut of Nepaul, though 

 Mr. Waller did worship at the shrine for a short season. Both, however, have in spirit expressed 

 their adherence to the creed of the olden time — that no one "be permitted to feed his birds 

 with anything but bread, egg, and Savoy biscuits, all description of seeds, anJ green meat of 

 every kind. That no marigolds, saffron, or dye of any kind be permitted to be used on any 

 pretence whatever." 



Mr. Brodrick, in one of his chatty communications with us, says in reference to this : — " The 

 cayenne feeding has also, I find, done away with all confidence one can feel as to the natural 

 quality of the bird, and I do not now give mine a grain of it ; but, of course, where colour is 

 the main point in competition, a non-pepper-fed bird has no chance whatever. The old London 

 Canary fanciers were right in restricting the diet of their show-birds to simple food — not that 

 I consider pepper-feeding otherwise unfair ; it simply places an othei^wise inferior bird over a 

 better one." And in a recent letter : — " I am quite opposed to the use of pepper with these 

 beautiful birds ; by disguising their true natural properties it only leads to incorrect selection 

 for breeding purposes. A hen-bird I obtained last year, highly fed, was on its arrival far deeper 

 in colour than any of my unfed cocks ; after the moult it was about the lightest in my room." 



We give these expressions of opinion, not so much as bearing on the " KN " question 

 generally, as being the conclusions of a thoughtful mind with respect to a bird which has 

 been made the careful study of a lifetime. That there are two sides to every question we 

 know ; and we have given the opinion of an old fancier — an authority — that it may be thought 

 over in connection with the present condition of the bird, in which it is perhaps undesirable that 

 anything should be done which might in the slightest degree disguise any of the nice distinctions 

 which the London Fancy breeder is, as we have said, in the present condition of the bird, 

 bound to take into the most careful consideration in the selection of his stock. 



It is not with this variety as with one bred in thousands and exhibited in hundreds, of 

 which it may fairly be assumed that the resulting effect of a uniform system of feeding may 

 be accepted as a reliable basis on which the relative qualities of a number of birds can 

 be accurately estimated, both for exhibition and for future breeding operations. 



With this bird, of a few put on " feed," some might accept and others reject the stimulating 

 food ; and not having a large number of average results to guide him, the breeder might 

 inadvertently come to an erroneous conclusion as to the intrinsic worth of some one or more of 

 his specimens ; for, regarding the development of colour as a test of the completeness of the 

 organisation for producing it, he might attribute its non-appearance to defective machinery, instead 

 of to' the fact of the mill really not having ground any corn, and so be entirely misled in his 

 colour schemes, and indirectly led into what Mr. Brodrick describes as "an incorrect selection for 

 breeding purposes." It is from a breeder's point of view only that we wish these observations 

 to be considered. When the bird is bred in numbers, and reliable breeding-stock can be as 

 easily procured as in other varieties, it may serve as an additional impetus to show what can 

 be done in the way of colour; but till then, we think respect should be paid to the opinions 

 of men who, acknowledging a gradual decline, affirm they can see signs of a further decline 

 in a system of feeding which has more to do with showing than careful breeding — the thing 

 wanted for some years to come. 



We conclude our notice of this beautiful bird with a Scale of Points. We have not been able 



