268 Canaries and Cage-Birds. 



paired in total disregard of all laws affecting consanguinity. Old birds which may have thrown 

 good muling stock are mated again ; hens which in the previous year have distinguished them- 

 selves for muling properties, or have shown fair promise, are paired with cocks from the same 

 nest, or, in default of an equal balance of sexes, with their own father, or the nearest relative 

 open for engagement in the matrimonial market, in any way and in every way best calculated 

 to ensure concentration of the existing tendency and maintain the strain intact. And, 

 remember, that any hen which will throw a Pied Mule — we don't mean a good one, the 

 question of quality and other matters affecting the character of the Mule being an after-con- 

 sideration — but a hen that will throw a Pied Mule of any sort is not to be despised. It is 

 just this peculiarity, a peculiarity not possessed by one in a thousand, that we require, and, 

 where it is found to exist, is the feature to be cultivated. Such a bird might appear among 

 Norwich or any variety, and a Mule-breeder would at once look after her brother or some 

 near kinsman, and from that beginning, where there is something to fix, would be much more 

 likely to build up a muling strain than by commencing with birds of no character, and having 

 no tendency to cultivate, unless it might be in the opposite direction to that required. We 

 refer again thus briefly to the question of founding an independent strain, because it crops up 

 naturally in this place. That the disposition to produce Pied Mules arises from some cause 

 is as certain as that all effect results from cause, the question being, what is the cause } 

 An instance, such as we have supposed, has occurred within our knowledge in the case of a 

 well-bred Norwich hen, and it might be urged that the cause was probably inter-breeding, 

 of which the owner might have been ignorant. To this we reply that in no variety is in- 

 and-in breeding carried on so closely or to such an extent as is supposed to induce the state 

 of body necessary for the production of Pied Mules. To do so would be fatal to the well-being 

 of any variety, and we do not suppose that out of a hundred hens, purchased indiscriminately, 

 one would be found to have been so inter-bred as to be half-way on that long journey some 

 theorists tell us they must take, even to become possible Pied Mule breeders. 



This preliminary work of multiplying stock is simply a matter of Canary-breeding so far 

 as concerns general management, but is an anxious time for the Mule-breeder, because a bad 

 season may reduce a very valuable stock to a low ebb. Hence the importance of keeping 

 birds in hand ; a prudent breeder, when his stock is getting low, even resisting the temptation 

 to take a single nest of Mules from any hen in order that the entire season may be devoted 

 to rearing muling stock for future operations. 



The next important step is to procure suitable Goldfinches, in selecting which nearly every 

 one follows a whim or fancy of his own. One looks for a long, slim, snake-headed bird, while 

 another doesn't care how chubby it may be ; one must have a full face, while another cares 

 not a straw how defective it may be, and in place of beauty and distinctive character prefers 

 positive defect or an amount of general deficiency indicating some tendency towards albinism. 

 Some pin their faith on Cheverals, and allow nothing to slip through their fingers, from 

 "pea-throats" to the widest and cleanest-cut throats procurable ; while others care little what 

 their bird is so long as it is a Goldfinch. Each^ no doubt, follows out some path which has, 

 in his experience, led to success, though the how or why of this it is so difficult to 

 reduce within known limits, that there are almost as many theories as to Goldfinch requisites 

 as there are breeders. In two noted breeding-rooms, which have for some years contained 

 very strong muling stocks, and in which have been bred some of the most extraordinary birds 

 of the day, the Finches are almost all CJieverals ; and the result of one experiment showed 

 that a hen which, when pair-^d with a Chevcral, threw lightly-varicgatcd birds, produced only 



