CHAPTER XXII. 



THEBELGIANCANARY. 



Having disposed of those birds whose attractions consist in the beauty of their plumage and the 

 many pecuHar features attaching thereto, and wliich are certainly, with the exception of the last 

 referred to, the most popular varieties with English breeders, we pass to our third group, the birds 

 of Shape and Position, including the Belgian, the Scotch Fancy, the Lancashire Coppy, and the 

 Yorkshire — four most important families, each possessing strongly-marked distinctive features which 

 single it out in an unmistakable way, and give it a separate niche in our portrait gallery. 



We commence with the Belgian, a Canary which retains the name of the country where, no 

 doubt, it was originally produced, and where it is to this day an object of the greatest interest ; 

 being literally one of its " institutions," and occupying a status to which we have no parallel in our 

 Canary world— at any rate, on this side of the Tweed. We are indebted to an esteemed 

 correspondent " over there " for much valuable information about this nationality, for such it is ; 

 and we extract the following account of its early history from a mass of original matter in which 

 this remarkable bird is invested with no small degree of romance : — 



"Although it may seem, at first sight, to be launching out upon the unstable ocean of 

 improbabilities to claim for this variety of Canary a right to be considered as having arisen out of 

 the history of the country whose name it bears, yet I feel assured it has a certain right to such a 

 claim. In endeavouring to trace back from the bird of to-day, so curiously developed in its 

 structure, to the ordinary form of the species, I think this claim will be recognised. I shall not 

 enter into a long account of the history of Belgium, but simply advert to the fact that when the 

 country was so harassed either by avowed enemies or pretended friends as to have been not inaptly 

 termed 'the cock-pit of Europe,' the people, shut out usually from participation in political affairs, 

 formed themselves into societies called Gilden, or, in the Latin of the time, Gildonia, for the 

 protection of trade and the extension of commerce. These guilds, as a body, exerted great 

 influence on the affairs of their towns, until the communal authorities in time came to acknowledge 

 them as their chief supporters, and encouraged them even so far as to enrol themselves as members, 

 meeting on a footing of equality, and entering into the aims and affairs of the society with freedom 

 and good-fellowship. 



"As time rolled on, ^nd no longer public safety or trade had need of such protection, these 

 societies became more truly social in their aims, in accordance with progress of knowledge and the 

 spirit of the times, having for their object ^he advancement of art, music, or simply pleasure. 'The 

 customs of the older societies, with all their traditions, are so well preserved, that they exist to this 

 day unchanged, so much so that a musical society intending, perhaps, only to take part in a 

 concert would not think of marching without their standard, and on grand occasions one or two 



pieces of artillery '(' LTndustrie en Belgique,' p. 47). Thus painting, scidpture, music, 



Inrd-catching, rabbits, pigeons, canaries, &c., came to be encouraged, each society having its position 

 in the social scale of the town ; having its colours, flagi, and motto, which it carries, along with tlie 



