232 C A .VARIES AND CaGE-BiRDS. 



with wonderful ease if the break be not applied at every stage. Some of the old school of 

 small birds really seem to have run down till they can run no further — till their momentum 

 is expended and they remain motionless and useless. Our advice is to let them remain whciL- 

 they are. For years we have from time to time come across such birds and always find 

 them in statu quo, neither better nor worse, but decidedly out of the race. Never think of 

 beginning with such, but get into good company at once and keep there. One of the greatest 

 delusions we know of in connection with bird-breeding is one of the most common — so common 

 that but few fanciers have not had a touch of the complaint at some time or other. You go 

 into a breeding-room and find one or two fair average show-birds, the remains of the past 

 show-season, mated respectably, though cage after cage exhibits entire want of quaUty but plenty 

 of pairing which must have been done without any settled purpose except to hatch a lot of 

 thorough rubbish to consume seed. You call attention to a very ordinary pair, something 

 more than extra shabby, and ask what they were put up for .■' " Well, they are not of much 

 account, certainly, but I thought they would do to breed from." We have had that answer over 

 and over again. To breed from ">. To breed ivliat? Ex niliilo nihil fit. Canary rearing is very 

 fascinating, very pretty, very innocent, and a source of great pleasure ; but going into breeding 

 any high-class birds, especially of the " model and action " school, is quite a different line of 

 art. Every intelligent breeder should admit this at once, and, avoiding defective models, study 

 only the productions of the best masters and work with the very best material. 



In selecting stock, let it also be remembered that nervous energy and sensitiveness are traits 

 of character not necessarily allied to form. They are to a very great extent united in the Scotch 

 bird as one of the results of a judicious commingling of every good property ; but the and must 

 not be forgotten in mating for model and action. The latter exhibits the former to greatest effect, 

 and, other things being equal, we should give preference to vivacious, sprightly birds and good 

 travellers in place of sluggish, lethargic specimens which are as likely as not to transmit their 

 bad as their good properties. " For-r-r-mation is a r-r-recommendation " — a veteran said it : 

 he sits on the left hand in the plate of the " Three Scottish Worthies ; " but nerve should be 

 regarded in the light of an hereditary trait to be transmitted with the " for-r-r-mation." A 

 slovenly, shuffling, look-before-ybu-leap, half-run, half-hop, is not nerve. Avoid such and think 

 of the and. 



We think it needless to give further cautions beyond observing that a breeder who does not 

 wish to perpetuate defects will not mate them, but will do his best to neutralise them by the best 

 counteracting influences at command, which is just the point where he is required to finesse with 

 extreme care as his strain develops its weak or its strong points. This is, perhaps, a matter for 

 consideration at a more advanced stage than at the outset, but beginning carefully and avoiding 

 the strengthening of any defects will save a world of trouble in the end. 



Mating for the different forms of colour as represented in extended classification also requires 

 only a passing note. We have already said that the Scotch classification is the servant of 

 circumstances, an orderly arrangement of forms which continually present themselves and which 

 are not sought to be controlled beyond what can be effected by separating Clean from Piebald in 

 the breeding-room. There are established strains of each, some breeders seeing the perfection of 

 beauty in the Clean bird and others in a " Peebal' Cock ; " but all this, it will be evident, is only a 

 question of feather distinct from shape, and is subject entirely to the laws affecting variegation 

 which we have fully discussed. It may, perhaps, be remarked that our variegation theories were 

 deduced from a variety bred for colour only, but that here we have another point to watch — namely, 

 the ever-present item of shape, which might be found to decline iu either the Clean or Piebald 



