igo 



Canaries and Cage-Birds. 



We commence our description with Shape, as inckiding that pecuH ir physical conformation on 

 which possible perfection of Position depends, although the results of that conformation are not at 

 all times presented to the eye in the form of a constant beauty, the bird bein^ able at will to shut 

 itself up, as it were, destroying all its elegant proportions, which are only exhibited in their highest 

 form during periods of nervous excitement. From this it will be seen how much the one property 



FIG. 54.— SHAPE AND POSITION. 



is dependent on the other, and is interwoven with it to such an extent, indeed, that it becomes 

 difficult to separate the consequence from the cause, since so much of outward shape is gathered 

 from position, and so much of position must depend on anatomical construction. This it is which 

 causes the bird to be regarded essentially as a Position bird, its being able to develop a certain 

 remarkable configuration being dependent on its formation, and the position or posture being 

 demanded as evidence of the formation, just as the formation is studied with a view to its 

 assisting in a display of posture which, resolved into its primary elements, it will be seen is simply 

 shape under another term. 



