Our  Canaries 
CINNAMON  PECULIARITIES. 
This  unique  colouring  is  one  of  its  chief  peculiarities  and  is  invariably 
associated  with  a  pink  eye,  which  is  the  hall-mark  of  cinnamon  blood.  Even  if  a 
bird  exhibits  not  the  slightest  trace  of  cinnamon  colour — be  it  wholly  clear  yellow, 
or  buff — if  it  possesses  the  pink  eye  the  Cinnamon  trail  is  there,  and  the  bird's 
pedigree  will  show  the  infusion  of  this  cross  at  some  time,  even  if  its  ancestry  has 
to  be  traced  back  several  generations  to  discover  it. 
This  peculiarity  was  early  recognised  by  its  breeders,  and  such  old  writers  as 
Brehm  and  Bechstein  remark  specially  upon  it,  though  it  was  believed  in  their 
days  to  indicate  a  weakness  and  delicacy  of  constituton  which  we  do  not  find  in  the 
birds  of  our  days.  The  pink-eyed  bird,  they  declared  in  so  many  words,  is  a  weak 
bird,  and  one  old  writer  whose  name  we  have  not  been  able  to  discover,  though  his 
work  remains,  went  still  further  and  said  they  could  not  see  to  feed  their  young 
even  if  they  should  have  any,  from  which  we  must  infer  that  their  powers  of  repro- 
duction were  believed  in  those  times  to  be  of  a  low  order. 
In  this,  as  in  other  breeds,  we  have  the  two  usual  types — yellow  and  buff.  In 
the  yellow  Cinnamon  the  prevailing  colour  is  pale  brown  leaning  more  towards  the 
chocolate  hue,  suffused  with  greenish -yellow.  This,  by  the  way,  must  not  be 
interpreted  to  mean  that  the  birds  must  show  any  greenish  tinge  which  would 
probably  be  synonymous  with  a  decidedly  faulty  feature  known  as  "  smokiness." 
An  unfed  rich  yellow  Norwich  Canary  may  be  taken  as  a  type  of  what  is  termed  a 
greenish-yellow,  the  same  bird  when  colour-fed  being  an  orange  or  reddish-yellow. 
The  buff  Cinnymon  is  of  a  softer  and  mellower  tone,  and  of  a  more  decided  dun  or 
dove-colour — in  fact,  more  nearly  approaching  the  hue  of  the  shell  of  the  clean, 
new,  ripened  walnut.  The  underflue  is  dark,  the  beak,  the  legs  and  feet  usually 
clear,  but  inclined  to  be  dark. 
ONLY  PROPAGATED  THROUGH  MALE. 
This  cinnamon  colour  and  characteristics  are  intimately  associated  with  sex, 
for  it  is  a  fact  that  they  can  only  be  propagated  and  perpetuated  through  the  male, 
and  that  a  cock  which  is  quite  free  from  Cinnamon  blood  will  never  produce 
Cinnamon  young  even  though  mated  with  the  purest-blooded  Cinnamon  hen, 
whilst  a  pure  Cinnamon  cock  mated  with  a  hen  quite  free  from  Cinnamon  blood 
will  never  produce  a  Cinnamon  or  Cinnamon-ticked  cock,  though  he  may,  and 
does,  produce  females  showing  the  Cinnamon  colour.  To  perpetuate  the 
Cinnamon  colour  in  both  sexes  it  is  absolutely  essential  for  Cinnamon  blood  to 
exist  in  both  parents,  and  to  produce  any  Cinnamon  feathers  at  all  Cinnamon  blood 
must  exist  in  the  male  parent.  This  is  apt  to  give  rise  to  most  puzzling  and 
interesting  results  when  breeding  Cinnamons  and  crossing  them  with  non-Cinnamon 
breeds  ;  results  which  become  all  the  more  mysterious  in  our  days  from  the  fact 
that  the  Cinnamon  has  been  so  largely  and  commonly  infused  in  most  of  our 
popular  breeds,  and  at  one  time  or  another  has  been  more  or  less  introduced  into 
