Our  Canaries 
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as  Quakers,"  and  subsequently  as  "  Dun"  and  "  Ash-coloured"  Canaries,  all 
terms  referring  to  the  quiet,  sober,  dove-coloured  plumage  'of  the  birds  of  the  day. 
Of  these  none  was  more  expressive  or  conveyed  a  better  impression  of  the  appear- 
ance of  the  birds  than  the  old  Anglo-Saxon  term  dun,  which  invariably  suggestedfa 
quiet  brown  colour  and  survives  even  to  this  day  in  the  colour  description  of 
"A  Cinnamon  with  light  feathers  may  be  mated  to  a  self  green  Norwich  hen." 
pigeons.  What  the  Dun  pigeon  is  to-day  among  pigeons,  the  "  Dun  Canary  "  was 
in  those  days  among  our  feathered  pets.  Later  on  it  was  given  the  name  it  now 
bears  from  a  fancied  resemblance  of  its  colour  to  the  culinary  spice  of  the  same 
name.  That  fancy  played  a  certain  part  in  such  a  comparison  is  tolerably  certain, 
and  would  give  but  a  very  poor  idea  of  the  true  colour  of  our  colour-fed  Cinnamons 
of  to-day.  The  old  non-fed  bird  would,  in  our  opinion,  be  much  better  likened  to 
the  colour  of  the  shell  of  a  clean,  well-ripened  walnut,  whilst  the  modern-fed  birds 
have  a  more  chocolate  tint,  or  a  kind  of  compromise  between  a  walnut  anda  chestnut. 
