Our  Canaries 
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hued  progeny  so  utterly  dissimilar  to  itself  in  appearance  which  go  through  the 
same  cycle  of  curious  phenomena  ere  arriving  at  the  stage  occupied  by  the  almost 
or  entirely  clear  birds  which  have  gone  through  their  show  career  and  been  duly 
relegated  to  the  breeding  room. 
THE  IDEAL  LONDON  FANCY. 
In  size  it  is  a  small  bird,  about  5^ins.  to  5f  ins.  in  total  length.  It  should  possess 
some  substance  of  body,  but  not  be  so  thick-set  and  chubby  as  the  Norwich  ;  have 
a  bold  semi-erect  position,  standing  slightly  more  upright  than  the  Norwich,  but 
in  no  sense  approaching  the  upright  carriage  or  slimness  of  the  Yorkshire ;  the 
breast  should  be  moderately  full  and  broad ;  the  back,  broad  ;  the  legs,  moderately 
short;  the  wings  neatly  carried  and  close  to  the  body,  the  tips  just  meeting,  but 
not  crossing  on  the  upper  tail  coverts  ;  and  the  tail  short  and  compact.  In  colour 
the  wings  and  tail  should  be  as  black  as  possible,  and  the  whole  of  the  body  from 
the  top  of  the  head  which  was  often  referred  to  as  the  cap,  over  the  neck,  breast, 
shoulders,  saddle,  and  loins,  a  rich,  deep  orange,  as  free  from  spangling,  or  dark 
specks,  as  possible.  In  the  mealies  the  rich  yellow,  or  jonque,  is  given  a  frosted, 
or  mealy,  appearance  by  silvery  white  tips  and  margins  to  the  feathers,  the  same 
as  we  find  in  the  buff  birds  of  other  varieties.  The  feet,  legs,  and  beak,  should 
be  dark.  The  underflue,  or  soft  fluffy  portion  at  the  basal  half  of  the  feather,  is 
an  important  feature  in  the  London  Fancy.  It  should  be  dark  in  all  cases  ;  that 
of  the  jonque  being  of  blue-black  hue,  and  a  very  dark  slate-blue  in  the  mealies. 
POINTS  FOR  BREEDERS. 
In  the  present  condition  of  the  London  Fancy  it  would  be  invidious  to  write 
at  length  upon  faults  which  should  be  avoided  in  mating  up  stock  for  breeding. 
Indeed,  the  prestige  of  the  breed  is  in  such  a  perilous  condition  that  we  must  of 
necessity  take  it  as  we  find  it.  It  appeals  to  our  sporting  instincts  no  less  than 
our  aesthetic  tastes,  and  if  its  silent  plea  must  in  substance  be  the  simple  "just  as 
I  am,"  let  our  response  for  the  sake  of  its  old  associations  be  an  equivalent  of  the 
disinterested  term  "with  all  thy  faults  I  love  thee  still."  Indeed,  with  such  a 
dearth  of  material  to  work  there  is  no  room  left  for  the  rejection  of  any  pure  bred 
stock,  and  it  may  even  be  an  absolute  necessity  to  introduce  alien  blood  to  make 
suitable  stock  before  the  London  Fancy  can  again  become  in  any  sense  a 
numerically  strong  or  a  popular  variety.  That  being  the  case,  pure  bred  birds, 
even  when  they  have  rather  serious  faults,  cannot  be  lightly  dispensed  with.  On 
the  contrary  they  must  be  taken  at  their  true  value,  which  will  be  found  chiefly 
in  a  knowledge  of  their  pedigree,  and  later  on  in  a  knowledge  of  their  influence  in 
the  breeding  room  as  to  whether  it  goes  in  the  direction  of  stamping  their  own 
failings  persistently  upon  nearly  the  whole  of  their  progeny,  or  reproduces  it  in  an 
exaggerated  form,  or  whether,  as  will  be  the  case  in  many  instances,  the  fault  is 
more  or  less  obliterated  by  the  influence  of  the  mate,  which  will,  of  course,  be 
