CAGE AND SINGING BIRDS. 83 
some of the domesticated varieties, which, as we shall by 
and by show, are rather numerous. White, g-ray, yellov/ 
green, and brown, of different shades, and in varyino- pro' 
portions, are the common colours of those birds bred in 
confanement; how the changes have been produced, it is 
now mipossible to say; climate, food, and intermixture of 
breeds, have, no doubt, each and all had some effect in pro- 
clxicnag tiiem, as by a carefid attention to these matters the 
latter especially, breeders in the country may now calculate 
with a tolerable degree of certainty on the kind of bird they 
are likely to have from certain parents, under certain cir- 
cumstances. With regard to climate, it has been remarked 
by Adamson, that the canaiy, which becomes in Fran-e 
nearly white, is, at Teneriffe, almost as brown as our linnet, 
and this agrees with the general observation of naturalists 
tJiat the covering of animals, be it fur or feathers, becomes 
thicker, and lighter of colour, in proportion to the coldness 
of the chmate which they inhabit. We should not, how- 
ever, lay too much stress upon this argument, for in this, as 
m ail other northern countries in which they reside, canaries 
■are so sheltered and protected from the weather, that we can 
scarcely imagine it to have much effect upon the economy 
ol their growth and structure ; and then, too, the prevalence 
amongst us of the darker-tinted birds— greens, and cinna- 
mon browns, and the like— militates considerably against this 
theory. After all, we must leave the subject pretty much 
as we find it, and confine ourselves to results, leaving causes 
to be inquired into by the learned and curious inves- 
tigator. 
The exact date of the introduction of the canary into this 
country IS not known; it is mentioned by Gesner,'who wrote 
m the latter part of the sixteenth century, and first de- 
scribed by Aldrovandus, in his " Ornithology," bearing date 
XOiU ; the bird was then esteemed a great rarity. Accord- 
ing to some authors, the island of Elba was the first 
±iUropean ground on which the canary found a resting- 
Dlace A ship bound for Leghorn, they say, having on 
board a number of the sweet songsters, foundered near this 
wland, on which the birds, set at liberty by the accident, 
tound a refuge, and the climate was so congenial to their 
nature, that they remained and bred, and would, probably, 
