Classification of Yorkshires. 241 



We sliall at once proceed to treat of the classification of this variety, taking the opportunity 

 to add such further remarks as may suggest themselves in the course of our explanatory review 

 of the system adopted, which is as follows : — 



Classification of Yorkshire Canaries. 



(a) Clear Yellow. 



{b) Clear Buff. 



{c) Evenly-marked Yellow. 



(d) Evenly-marked Buff. 



(c) Ticked and Variegated Yellow. 



(/) Ticked and Variegated Buff. 



{g) Green. 



With regard to the Clear classes, we have only to remark that shape being the essence of 

 the bird, colour does not count till the standard properties have been carefully weighed, when 

 superior colour would turn the balance. It is a feature, the value of which is steadily 

 on the rise, because it has been shown that it is possible to incorporate it with the 

 essentials of a good bird without interfering with them ; and such being the case, there is no 

 valid reason why it should not have its value — its full value, but not more. If the admirers 

 of the bird say. One lesson we have learnt from the changes of late years is that colour 

 is within our reach and we mean to have it, we reply, the bird is theirs, and no ipse dixit of 

 any judge should stand in the way of the development of the new beauty. The evil to guard 

 against is giving it a fictitious value or permitting it to trench, however slightly, on the domain 

 of shape. In the interest of the bird and a desire to see it ever maintain an unequivocal position 

 in the sphere in which it has moved so long, we urge extreme caution in dealing with this matter, 

 and unhesitatingly express our opinion that good model, though clothed in the palest of lemon- 

 yellow or the whitest buff, should ever stand before the ruddiest jonque in which can be seen the 

 shadow of a defect in symmetry. On this question we wish our opinion to be as pronounced as 

 possible. We do not regard colour as a useless innovation— quite the contrary ; but to set colour 

 against form is, in this case, at once to trifle with settled principles and a waste of good 

 cayenne. 



Of the remaining classes, {c) and {d) supply the key to {e) and (/), which last are intended to 

 include every possible form of variegation not being technical even-marking. Here also — that is, 

 in (<?) and (/) — shape rules over everything, colour seldom intruding itself, except it may be in a 

 close contest between two bona fide Ticked birds, in which case, other things being equal, it has 

 the power of a casting vote. In this Variegated section, however, another element enters by 

 common consent. Assuming the all-important property of form to be present and to be fairly 

 balanced between any two birds, the nearest approach to even-marking then decides the question. 

 Nor is this an unsound position ; neither must it be tested by the law which governs the awards 

 in the corresponding section in the Norwich variety, in which colour is the sitnimum bomnn of the 

 breeder, and in which variegation is dealt with solely in its relation to colour. In the Yorkshire 

 variety, as we shall show presently, the cultivation of technical marking has been as closely 

 followed up in its place as form has been, and hence the idea of variegation, as used here, is not 

 connected with colour so much as with a special form of marking, the nearest approach to which 

 becomes of value when found united to the indispensable primary qualification of shape. The 

 wording in some schedules is " Ticked and Unevenly-marked," which, accepted literally, has a 

 direct bearing on the perfect form of marking to which we have alluded ; but inasmuch as 

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