Our  Canaries  277 
the  rare  exception,  whilst  the  general  rule  was  found  to  exist  in  the  primitive  stage 
of  not  being  able,  as  the  oldest  rustics  of  to-day  forcibly  put  it,  to  "  tell  a  B  from 
a  Bull's  foot."  Had  such  unhappy  conditions  existed  until  our  times  we  should  in 
all  probability  have  left  as  little  imprint  of  our  work  for  future  generations  as  the 
old  fanciers  of  other  times  have  bequeathed  to  us.  We  have  at  least  the  satisfac- 
tion of  knowing  that  these  patient  and  skilful  breeders  systematically  cultivated  and 
brought  to  a  high  degree  of  perfection  just  those  varieties  which  are  now  sadly 
neglected,  and,  it  is  to  be  feared,  for  no  better  reason  than  that  they  are  commonly 
considered  to  be  more  difficult  to  breed  in  anything  approaching  an  ideal  type  than 
the  more  popular  varieties  of  to-day. 
And  yet  the 
Lizard  with 
which  it  is  so  ob- 
viously related  by 
the  closest  ties  of 
blood  kinship 
(and  the  young 
of  both  varieties 
possess  practi- 
cally the  same 
phenomena  of  de- 
velopment from 
hatching  to 
maturity  as  to 
leave  no  reason- 
able doubt  that 
both  come  from 
a  common  stock) 
still  has  a  fair  amount  oi  popularity,  and  sufficient  supporters  to  make  its  extinction 
appear  as  a  remote  contingency.  Why  this  should  be  so  is  difficult  to  surmise 
when  we  reflect  that  the  popularity  of  the  Lizards  obtains  chiefly  among 
the  weavers  of  the  Cottonopolis  to  whom  the  birds  drifted  in  the  old  days, 
as  we  have  already  shown,  from  the  silk  weavers  of  the  Western  and  Southern 
Counties,  and  as  will  presently  be  seen  were  looked  upon  as  an  inferior  class 
of  birds  by  the  London  breeders  when  the  "  Spangleback,"  as  the  London 
Fancy  was  frequently  termed,  was  valued  as  the  prime  favourite  for  show 
purposes.  In  those  days  the  perfectly  clear-bodied  London  Fancy  seems  to 
have  been  quite  the  exception,  and  not  the  rule,  as  popular  opinion  is  apt 
to  aver.  Most  of  the  best  birds  showed  more  or  less  dark  spangling  which 
required  the  greatest  care  to  keep  under  control,  and  eventually  eradicate.  This 
fact  alone  in  conjunction  with  the  comparatively  little  value  attached  to  the 
LONDON  FANCY  COCK  &  HEN. 
From  an  old  work  published  1858. 
