igU Canaries and Cagf.-Dirds. 



and that was, in brief, "shape," to the entire exckision of colour or variegation in plumage in the 

 way in which it is recognised by us ; but by the time we had made a critical examination of the 

 exhibits on the standard basis, we discovered there was no room for colour when it was demanded 

 that the eye should be filled by shape. Old likings, however, are not to be thrown aside all 

 at once, and the eye would occasionally rest with pleasure on a specimen in which were united the 

 beauties of shape and colour also ; but the leading idea, once grasped, soon shoulders all others out 

 of the way, and we can easily understand how, in the eager pursuit of the one main object, nothing 

 would be allowed to interfere with its absorbing character. When we remember that this 

 development of form alone has been the study of generations, it needs no argument to show that 

 the most plastic materials would be selected from time to time, irrespective of properties which, to 

 the uninitiated, might seem undesirable. To the English fancier, the pale lemon-yellow or the 

 almost colourless buff may appear capable of improvement, and the irregular variegation susceptible 

 of correction and control ; but the Belgian breeder sees nothing of this— his ideal is a statuesque 

 model, and he cares not whether it be chiselled out of spotless marble or other material. He shrugs 

 his shoulders as he passes showy-looking birds, contenting himself with the expressive comment, 

 " No position ; no position." To him " KN " and " marking " are delusions. 



It should be remembered that we are dealing with a Canary perhaps the least popular of any of 

 the varieties which grace our show-stages. We will not stay to ask why a bird which can engross 

 the attention of a whole people, should be looked on with an indifference amounting almost to 

 positive dislike by another nationality having kindred likings ; yet so it is, and we find this 

 Canary making but slow headway here. It may be that it is not understood, and it certainly 

 is not understood if we may consider the provision made for it in some of our exhibitions 

 as any criterion. This has most materially to do with the point under consideration — viz., 

 Colour — in its relation to the generally-received notion of the bird here as compared with the 

 estimation in which this feature is held in Belgium. In its home, the land of its creation 

 and development, where in all conscience one must give its admirers credit for knowing their 

 bird and its belongings better than we — though we have known egotism go to the length of 

 asserting they do not — there are only the two natural divisions. Yellow and Buff, and no other. 

 Our esteemed "Belgian Correspondent" before quoted says : — " There is no reference to Variegated 

 birds in any of our prospectuses, and in those I have sent you " — the subject-matter of which we 

 will presently detail — " you have the substance of every one I have met with. I have ascertained 

 that once at Bruges, some years ago, there were two classes given for these birds — one for cocks 

 and the other for hens ; but no gentleman with whom I have spoken has heard of any other 

 occasion, although it is possible there may have been. Variegated birds are shown in that class to 

 which they belong by virtue of their native body-colour, yellow or buff, as the case may be. I have 

 heard it repeatedly asserted, or hinted at, that Variegated birds are below the average in position 

 qualities; but I assure you it is quite a mistake, the majority of victorious birds during tlie past 

 show season not having been Clears. I say this from observation." 



It was perhaps scarcely to be expected that here, where colour and beauty of plumage have 

 ever ruled, the idea of shape and position should at once supplant deeply-rooted notions of what 

 constituted beauty in a Canary ; and while the attractions of an ideal which consisted in symmetry 

 of a fascinating character could not be denied, it is not a matter of surprise that its admirers here 

 should have sought to invest it with some of the charms, to them, inseparable from colour and 

 other properties of plumage, hitherto their Alpha and Omega, in which they considered the 

 Position bird wanting. Or it might be that, knowing nothing of its history, or the laws regulating 

 its classification in the country from whence it canie, it was inferred that the same distinctions 



