Muling Strains op Canaries. 267 



surprise. The way to measure selfishness is to try on the cap ; it will be found a very elastic 

 and accommodating fit. It is not, however, always selfishness which stops the way, so much 

 as the fear of losing the strain which makes holders so careful how they part with even a 

 surplus bird. There are among muling men some who would not part with a feather if they 

 thought it was worth anything, just as there are among other breeders men who might possibly 

 be induced to part with something not of much value, but who would not sell anything — ■ 

 feather or information — likely to be of advantage to a neighbour ; yet we have generally 

 found among our miners — and they are the men who have the best birds — anything but this 

 short-sighted policy. The birds are to be had, but mostly through private channels ; they do 

 not exist in such numbers as to be an article of merchandise to be advertised and puffed 

 and sold by the score, and fortunate is the beginner who can secure one reliable pair. A 

 friend of ours who had bred between seventy and eighty Mules in one season, but all Dark, 

 made up his mind to get into a better strain, and it will be admitted there was room for 

 improvement. He knew where the hens were, but how to get at them was the question. Well, he 

 fitted himself out in workman's clothes, and, so disguised, entered the enemy's country. This 

 precaution was necessary, for a long purse is apt to spoil the market, and the fame of a "plucky" 

 buyer soon spreads. He managed to hit on the right spot, and was fortunate enough to secure a 

 cock and two hens at a reasonable price. But there was a hen — a noted hen — the mother of his 

 ■hens, which had produced more than one star, and he cast a longing eye upon it; in fact, he 

 prolonged his stay till the vendor began to be suspicious, and thought something more than met 

 the eye was covered by our friend's war-paint. At last, grown desperate, he made such a bid 

 for the hen that suspicion became certainty, and he was met with the pointed question, " Do 



they ca' yea Mr. .' " He returned home without the hen. On another occasion he found 



his way into the wilds of Northumberland, among the pit districts. The old style of pitman's 

 cottage is a two-roomed house — a living-room, with bed-room overhead under the tiles. This 

 bed-room is got at by means of a cross between a ladder and a staircase, but in our particular 

 instance it was a superior style of cottage with real staircase, flanked on either side with hams 

 and sides of bacon, for pitmen breed something else besides birds. The bed-room is generally 

 the bird-room, and our friend found himself doubled up (for, being six-three, he couldn't stand) 

 close under the tiles, in the presence of hens, every one of which could be warranted to throw 

 a certainty. But there was no doing any business ; not a feather could he buy. And there 

 he sat on a low stool, with his head between his knees, like an inverted letter N, looking the 

 picture of misery and disappointment. But his ofiers to buy had touched the worthy possessor 

 of these hens in a weak point. If there is one thing a pitman admires, it is pluck ; and after 

 watching our friend intently for a long while, he said very deliberately and kindly, "Aw like 

 the luik o' ye : thoo shall hev the bawds," and, without more ado, he put the best he had in a 

 small store-box or travelling-cage, with the simple comment, "Tliere!" Payment was out of the 

 question. "A poond or two is ne way wi' me, mistaw : tak' the bawds an' welcome; they're 

 aall reet in good hands." The only difficulty was to get away without accepting a ham, which 

 did come shortly afterwards, and more than one, in a most delightfully mysterious way, with 

 which " Ham Peggoty's " Brazil-nuts left behind " Little Em'ly's " door will bear no comparison. 

 The birds are to be had. Q.E.D. 



Having procured an approved pair, the first thing to be done is to breed from them to 

 secure the strain. The early part of the season is occupied, in a Mule-breeder's room, in 

 multiplying stock ; and as the muling season does not commence till May, there is plenty of 

 time to secure one or two nests of Canaries. Inter-breeding being the rule, the birds are 



