Our  Canaries 
207 
a  partner  in  the  Fancy  with  the  late  Mr.  John  Simms,  also  of  Sutton-in- 
Ashfield.  For  some  time  the  secret  was  well  kept,  and  it  was  claimed  that 
the  extraordinary  colour  was  the  peculiar  property  of  the  strain  in  which  it 
had  been  established  by  breeding.  Some  of  the  birds  were  exhibited  in  several 
places  during  the  season  187 1-2,  and  rapidly  pushed  their  way  to  the  front 
in  spite  of  the  fact  that  every  opportunity  was  taken  to  throw  discredit  on 
both  birds  and  owner  by  their  opponents,  who  honestly  believed  the  colour 
was  due  to  some  skilful  dyeing  of  the  plumage. 
Eventually  the  secret  was  purchased  by 
Messrs.  Bemrose  and  Orrne,  of  Derby,  and  it 
is  now  a  matter  of  history  how  Mr.  Bemrose 
showed  two  cayenne-fed  birds  at  the  Crystal 
Palace  in  February,  1873,  and  on  being  sus- 
pected of  foul  play  promised  to  bring  out  the  next 
season  a  whole  team  of  birds  of  colour  which 
should  carry  all  before  them  from  Whitby 
Show,  in  September,  to  the  Crystal  Palace  in 
the  following  February. 
The  threat  of  Mr.  Bemrose  was  no  idle 
boast,  and  was  practically  fulfilled  the  next 
season,  when  he  turned  out  a  team  that  proved 
invincible  wherever  shown,  and  a  climax  was 
reached  at  the  Norwich  Show,  held  in  St. 
Andrew's  Hall  in  that  city,  when  several 
Norwich  fanciers  protested  in  a  body  against 
the  birds,  with  the  result  that  seven  specimens  were  selected  and  submitted 
to  the  County  Analyst  for  chemical  examination  of  the  plumage.  But  the 
birds  passed  through  the  ordeal,  and  were  certified  as  being  free  from  any 
external  colouring  matter. 
Meantime  the  secret  was  rapidly  leakmg  out  in  other  quarters,  and  upon 
the  fact  that  a  single  person  was  known  to  have  boasted  of  making  no  less  a 
sum  than  ^50  by  the  sale  of  the  recipe  (which  he  had  himself  acquired  as  a 
gift)  being  brought  to  the  knowledge  of  Mr.  Bemrose,  he  forthwith  gave  the 
secret  to  the  Fancy  world  in  the  columns  of  the  "Journal  of  Horticulture," 
wherein  it  appeared  on  December  nth,  1873.  It  proved  to  be  nothing  more 
than  feeding  the  birds  daily  whilst  m.oulting  with  a  portion  of  soft  food  with 
which  was  mixed  a  proportion  of  cayenne.  Some  believed,  and  others 
repudiated  the  idea.  But  time  proved  that  the  information  was  correct,  and 
this  common  culinary  article  became  the  chief  and  almost  the  only  colouring 
agent  for  many  years. 
Pods  o!  the  Hot  Pepper. 
