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Our  Canaries 
CHAPTER  XVI. 
THE    CINNAMON  CANARY. 
ANOTHER  of  our  old  breeds,  and  one  possessing  unique  properties  all  its 
own,  the  Cinnamon  has  descended  to  us  from  the  days  when  records 
and  pedigrees  were  neither  valued  by  the  breeder,  nor  deemed  worthy  of  bequest 
to  posterity  as  the  birthright  of  his  feathered  creations.  Whence  !  or  where  !  or 
when  !  the  Cinnamon,  as  we  now  know  it,  originated  is  therefore  unknown  to  us, 
and  must  ever  remain  a  matter  of  the  purest  speculation.  That  it  in  all 
probability  first  occurred  as  a  sport  from  the  green — just  as  much  a  freak  of  nature 
as  the  cinnamon-coloured  specimens  of  Starlings,  Greenfinches,  and  other  species 
of  our  wild  birds  which  are  occasionally  met  with — scarcely  admits  of  a  doubt,  so 
that  the  Cinnamon  is  of  necessity  a  more  recent  creation  than  the  Green, 
which  latter  is  beyond  all  doubt  the  rock-bed  and  foundation  of  colour  in 
the  Canary  race  as  a  whole.  We  well  remember  these  terse  remarks  of 
the  late  Mr.  J.  North,  than  whom  no  one  was  more  deeply  versed  in  knowledge  and 
experience  of  the  mysteries  of  cinnamon  colour  and  its  vagaries,  in  reply  to  an 
assertion  that  the  Cinnamon  was  the  elder  colour :  "  The  statement  that  Cinnamon- 
coloured  Canaries  existed  before  Green  Canaries  requires  a  lot  of  corroboration. 
Do  you  know  any  place  in  the  world  where  Cinnamon-coloured  Canaries  can  be 
found  wild  ?  or  any  birds  of  a  cinnamon  colour  ?  There  are  several  places  where 
Green  Canaries  are  found  in  a  state  of  Nature,  but  no  one  has  ever  reported  seeing 
a  '  brown  one  '  amongst  them.  You  can  breed  Green  Canaries  from  Cinnamons  and 
from  buff'  and  yellow-marked  birds  that  have  Cinnamon  blood  in  them,  but  you 
cannot  breed  Cinnamons  from  Greens  or  from  any  bird  or  birds  that  have  not  got 
the  Cinnamon  blood  in  them.  The  colour  ultimately  attained— the  green— may 
be  accepted  as  the  natural  or  original  colour." 
ITS  NOMENCLATURE. 
Although  in  modern  times  we  have  come  to  look  upon  the  term  Cinnamon  as 
indicative  of  a  specific  and  distinct  breed  of  Canary,  it  was  always  Mr.  North's 
contention  that  the  word  could  only  be  properly  applied  as  a  qualifying  adjective 
and  not  as  a  substantive  or  noun— that  its  unique  colour  properties  were  its  only 
distinctive  feature,  and,  in  consequence,  to  speak  of  the  Cinnamon  Canary  was  no 
more  definite  or  correct  than  if  we  spoke,  or  wrote,  of  the  Yellow  Canary.  But  as 
the  bird  of  the  Norwich  type  has  always  possessed  these  features  in  the  highest 
degree,  and  in  spite  of  the  wide  dissemination  of  the  colour  in  other  breeds,  still 
retains  its  position  as  the  fount  and  source  of  Cinnamon  colour  it  is  only  reason- 
able to  regard  it  now  as  the  Cinnamon,  and  give  it  the  same  status  as  a  specific 
breed.  In  the  early  days  of  our  own  historical  times  when  the  birds  were  most 
popular  in  their  stronghold  around  Northampton  and  Nottingham  they  were  known 
