242 Canaries axv Cage-Birds. 



this definition is really restrictive in its meaning when taken literally, we prefer the broader 

 and more comprehensive term "Variegated," which, it will be at once understood, includes in the 

 abstract every other form of variegation not specifically provided for in (c) and {d) ; magnificent 

 birds, Unevenly-marked as well as Variegated proper, occasionally presenting themselves for 

 competition, besides others in which ioth forms are combined, and which would virtually be 

 ineligible in a class definitely restricted to uneven marking, if by the latter expression were 

 to be understood simply examples of technical marking in which the reduplication necessary 

 to constitute it, even in character, were wanting. No difficulty whatever is experienced in 

 the practical application of this broader scheme if the principle underlying the whole be 

 understood. In brief, form and approximate excellence in marking will count above equally 

 good form and merely irregular variegation, but superior form will count above anything in 

 this class. 



Classes {c) and {d) occupy almost a world to themselves. Everything pertaining to the 

 character of an Evenly-marked Canary has been so fully explained in its place that it is unnecessary 

 to make the slightest reference to it here. Suffice it to say that the breeding of these birds has 

 been so long and so systematically carried out in Yorkshire that the variety has become fixed with 

 perhaps as much certainty as can be calculated on in the pursuit of a very erratic property. 

 The length of the bird and the compact carriage of the wings exhibit the extended V to perfection, 

 while the glossy black-green of the dark feathers, contrasting strongly with the not very brilliant 

 body-feathers, gives a singular beauty to the markings not so observable in the Norwich, in which 

 the bronzy marks are printed on a ground-colour as brilliant as can be produced. The wing- 

 marking is also much lighter than in the Norwich, and the best examples do not extend 

 beyond four feathers. A Yorkshire breeder's idea of perfection is a six-marked bird — i.e., one 

 marked on each side of the tail, as well as on the eyes and wings — an opinion from which 

 it may be nothing short of treason to dissent, though, personally, we attach but small value 

 to tail-markings, because the neater the tail, the more effectually will it hide its markings 

 from view. 



There is one special form in which the Evenly-marked Yorkshire appears to which we must 

 call attention, and that is in connection with the Cinnamon cross. In our description of the 

 Cinnamon we referred to this when speaking of the bird as a pure breed which had been put to 

 various uses for specific purposes, confining our remarks in that place to the use of it in the Colour 

 section, and purposing to touch on the subject again, briefly, in this place. We stated that 

 the original Cinnamon had been grafted on two or three stems for various objects, and we 

 exhausted the subject in relation to one of them, viz., the Colour stem. But the Yorkshire breeder 

 also has been long alive to the use of Cinnamon blood, and has grafted it on his stock, establishing 

 a strain of birds with Cinnamon markings, which, ignoring colour properties, ought to compete, 

 primarily, on the basis of shape, in a separate and distinct school from the Cinnamons of the 

 Colour family. We know that Cinnamons are Cinnamons under whatever flag they muster ; 

 but our object is to draw attention to that branch of the family which we will, for distinction, 

 call the Yorkshire Cinnamon, as indicating the nature of the addition to the parent stem. Our 

 notes here will afi"ord the key to our remarks on page 114. The Evenly-marked examples of 

 the Yorkshire Cinnamon are not classed as a variety of the Yorkshire, nor are the corresponding 

 specimens in the Norwich Cinnamon classed as a variety of the Norwich, but both are shown 

 under the Cinnamon flag, an incongruous grouping of shape with colour; the remedy for 

 which is either to provide for each a separate class in its own section, or to provide two classes for 

 Evenly-marked Cinnamons in the Cinnamon section, separated on the basis of colour v. shape. 



