Our  Canaries  9 
"THE    FULL  CANARY." 
Hervieux,  probably  the  best  and  most  reliable  authority  of  his  day,  writing 
at  the  opening  of  the  eighteenth  century,  gives  descriptions  of  no  fewer  than  29 
varieties  which  were  known  to  the  fanciers  of  that  time,  and  he  also  speaks  of  the 
white  canary,  which  he  further  says,  had  red  eyes.  His  mention  of  "  blonde," 
"agate,"  and  "isabelle,"  canaries,  all  with  red  eyes,  and  of  the  "canary 
variegated  with  blonde,  and  with  red  eyes,"  would  all  seem  to  point  to  the  fact 
that  the  cinnamon  and  cinnamon-marked  canary  existed  in  those  early  days  of 
the  canary  fancy.  The  crested  canary  was  also  in  existence,  and  is  mentioned 
as  one  of  the  most  beautiful  of  the  tribe.  It  is  interesting  to  note  that  in  this 
record  of  Hervieux  when  he  mentions  one  variety  as  "the  full  canary,  which  is 
the  rarest,"  he  adds  an  explanatory  note  to  make  it  clearly  understood  that 
by  this  term  is  meant  one  that  is  "  fully  and  entirely  yellow  jonquille." 
A  TRIO  OF  IMPORTANT  FACTS. 
Here  we  have  at  once  by  induction  three  important  facts  made  clear ; 
firstly  that  the  term  canary  was  from  the  earliest  days  of  the  fancy  intimately 
associated  with  the  yellow  colour  ;  secondly,  that  clear  bodied  birds  as  we  now 
term  them  were  produced  as  early  as  the  dawn  of  the  eighteenth  century ; 
and  from  this  distinct  reference  to  the  rarity  of  this  variety  in  those  days  we 
get  the  third  interesting  discovery  that  the  birds  had  been  bred  in  a  domestic 
state  for  a  considerable  number  of  generations  before  there  was  any  common 
breaking  away  from  the  dark  plumage  of  the  original  stock.  Incidentally,  we 
may  note  that  this  reference  to  a  clear  bodied  bird  as  a  "full  canary"  may 
possibly  throw  some  light  upon  the  curious  persistence  with  which,  in  our  own 
days  many  people,  unversed  in  Fancy  matters,  adhere  to  the  belief  that  a  variegated 
canary  is  in  reality  a  mule,  and  that  only  clear  bodied  birds  are  pure  canaries. 
What  more  likely  than  that  this  popular  belief  is  but  a  relic  of  an  ancient  tradition 
which  has  descended  as  an  unwritten  law  from  the  earliest  pioneers  of  the 
Fancy. 
NOT  A  MODERN  INSTITUTION. 
It  is  therefore  seen  that,  contrary  to  the  general  opinion,  canary  breeding 
as  a  hobby  is  not  a  modern  institution,  but  can  boast  a  very  ancient  lineage 
with  an  unbroken  record  through  several  centuries  down  to  the  present  day. 
We  may  truly  say  unbroken  even  though  we  stop  at  Hervieux's  record,  as  this 
work  overlaps  the  records  already  given  of  the  cultivation  of  the  song  canary, 
and  brings  us  well  within  sight  of  the  definite  records  of  the  cultivation  of 
fancy  varieties  as  we  know  them  to-day.  Such  breeds  as  the  London  Fancy 
(now,  unfortunately,  verging  on  extinction,  as  it  were),  the  Lancashire,  Lizard, 
and  Belgian,  all  possess  a  history,  as  will  be  shown  in  the  proper  place,  which 
goes  back  as  far  as  the  time  of  this  author,  or  within  a  sufficiently  reasonable 
