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Our  Canaries 
instead  of  being  placed  directly  on  the  outside.  In  this  there  is  just  that 
measure  of  a  half-truth  which,  it  is  said,  is  ever  the  blackest  of  prevarications. 
If  it  were  wholly  true,  why  should  we  not  have  a  class  of  scarlet  or  crimson 
Canaries  by  colour-feeding  on  cochineal,  which  was  a  popular  colour-food  in 
pre-cayenne  days?  Or  a  strain  of  magenta  coloured  ones  by  dosing  with 
logwood,  which  was  also  drawn  upon  as  a  colour-food  ?  Or,  wonder  of 
wonders!  why  should  not  this  agent,  and  its  well-known  mordant,  iron  (which 
is  almost  invariably  used  at  the  latter  end  of  the  moult),  give  us  a  class  of 
black  Canaries  ?  Why  ?  Simply  because,  as  we  said  just  now,  the  whole 
thing  contains  but  half  a  truth. 
To  give  the  term  colour-feeding  its  proper  weight  and  meaning  we  must 
regard  it  as  implying  the  feeding,  or  supplying  with  abundant  nutriment  at  the 
opportune  time,  of  the  natural  pigment  cells  within  the  bird's  system  which 
Nature  has  designed  for  the  manufacture  and  deposition  of  colour  in  the 
plumage.  The  fact  that  the  colour  which  we  supply  for  the  purpose  is,  to 
our  senses,  somewhat  similar  to  that  which  we  wish  to  produce,  is  probably 
only  coincident  wath  the  idea  that  "like  produces  like,"  which  has  restricted 
the  researches  of  fanciers  among  suitable  colour  agents  to  a  certain  groove. 
But  the  fact  is  of  little  importance  beside  the  one  that  the  agent  supplied  is 
merely  so  much  raw  material  out  of  which  Nature's  own  machinery  can  best  and 
most  readily,  as  results  lead  us  to  believe,  evolve  and  fashion  the  elements 
required  for  the  production  and  deposition  of  her  own  colour  cells.  That  this 
is  so  is  apparent,  seeing  that,  as  we  all  know  from  common  experience,  al- 
though we  supply  the  identical  colouring  agents  to  yellow  and  buff  birds  the 
results  give  us  deeper  and  richer  tones  of  yellows  and  buffs,  and  not  all 
yellows  as  might  reasonably  be  expected  if  the  colour  we,  figuratively  speaking, 
poured  in  were  merely  oozed  out  on  the  surface.  If  that  theory  were  correct, 
it  goes  without  saying  that  buff  birds  should,  ipso  facto,  be  transformed  into 
yellows  by  colour-feeding  instead  of,  as  experience  tells  us,  being  converted 
into  a  more  glorious  buff  with  a  richer  shade  of  ground  colour  against  which 
the  white  mealy  tips  of  the  feathers  stand  out  in  greater  relief. 
THE  EVOLUTION  OF  COLOUR-FEEDING. 
Prior  to  the  year  187 1,  when  the  discovery  of  the  wonderful  effects  of 
cayenne  first  became  known  to  the  public,  such  things  as  cochineal,  a  strong 
solution  of  saffron,  marigold  blooms,  beetroot,  mustard  seed,  and  even  logwood 
solution,  port  wine,  and  iron,  either  in  the  sulphate  or  carbonate  form,  were 
among  the  best  known  and  commonly  used  agents  to  improve  the  colour  of 
birds.  It  was  towards  the  close  of  the  moulting  season  of  1871  that  Midland 
fanciers  first  heard  of  certain  wonderfully  coloured  birds  possessed  by  a 
Sutton-in-Ashfield  breeder — now  believed  to  be  Mr.  Harry  Shaw,  at  one  time 
