236 Canaries and Cage-Birds. 



classes, and then the sixteen judges, chosen eight from Glasgow and eiglit from other towns, 

 appeared on the scene, each Glasgow judge being paired with a stranger. Nearly 

 every man took off his coat and addressed himself to his work in real earnest. It requires 

 some practice to handle a Scotch Fancy properly, and we could see some very clever 

 jockeyship displayed. The mode of judging is for each man to take a cage, and then, facing 

 each other, each trots his bird out, indulging, the while, in little soliloquies. Then they 

 exchange cages, and the better bird is kept for comparison with the next, every specimen being 

 most critically examined, the best being set aside for a final sifting, sundry hieroglyphics in 

 chalk placed on the cages expressing the merits of each. An enthusiastic committee-man 

 remarked to us that before they were done every man would be " sweatin' an' hauddin' his 

 neebor by the head like a hor-rse," which really was the case when each sat down to ride 

 his selection and get the last ounce out in a severe finish, several dead heats having to be 

 "refereed." The work completed, the winning cages were decorated with prize-cards in 

 coloured morocco, on which was emblazoned in gold letters the degree of distinction 

 obtained, while the judges, wearied and exhausted with their exertions, retired to an inner 

 sanctum to recruit their energies with oat-cake and the dews gathered from their native hills, 

 that said to be obtained from the summit of Ben Nevis being most in request. 



In attempting to frame a scale of points for judging the Scotch Fancy, we are conscious 

 that we are doing something of which, to the best of our knowledge, Scotch breeders themselves 

 have seen no necessity ; at all events, we have not met with any such scale having an authoritative 

 impress. Our intention is simply to give our readers in the usual tabulated form some idea 

 of the relative worth of the parts which make up this interesting whole, attaching to each a 

 value which will leave sufficient margin for a subtractive process, and not rendering complications 

 more complicated in an attempt to draw too nice distinctions. Our first impulse was to make 

 it very short, and include the whole in the two pass-words " model " and " action ; " but the 

 former comprehends so much that we have endeavoured to resolve it into its constituent parts. 

 Difficulties lurk beneath each step of the operation, and many of them it is quite useless to 

 combat ; but we prefer to indicate broadly the different values rather than to shave off the 

 corners for the purpose of making a neat fit. 



It will be seen that in our scale of points we have given what we take to be the leading 

 features of this Canary, and the most common forms in which inferior breeding shows itself 

 It will also be noticed that we have first furnished the elements of its shape, giving prominence 

 to the four without which the bird could not be constructed even in a very rudimentary form. 

 From that we have proceeded to assess the value of the combined whole as exhibited in elegant 

 contour, and lastly we have determined the value of "action." It is perhaps immaterial whether 

 the item "size" be attached to the first or second part of our scale, but we have preferred to 

 connect it with " model," to which it seems more strictly to appertain, the idea of size embrac- 

 ing the whole bird rather than any individual part. To feather and colour we have apportioned 

 just the value they appear to have in Scotland — viz., nil ; but in taking leave of this most 

 beautiful creation we commend feather to the consideration of our English breeders, at least, as 

 a feature which seems to us to play an important part in assisting to make or break the fine 

 curves which determine outline. 



With these preliminary remarks we proceed to place our Scale of Points for judging Scotcli 

 Fancy Canaries before our readers : — 



