Our  Canaries 
291 
"  Bloom  and  richness  of  feather  are  added  by  next  matching  up  with  a  yellow. 
The  three  foregoing  stages  will  have  taught  the  novice  the  value  of  true  pedigree. 
To  ensure  the  success  of  your  efforts  there  must  be  no  doubt  about  your  yellow 
blood.  One  very  important  point  to  remember  is  that  you  have  already  by  double- 
buffing  and  breeding  from  cousins  and  double-greens  been  establishing  small  beaks. 
This  is  one  of  the  secrets  of  success  in  Crest  breeding.  The  characteristics  of  the 
yellow  are  vigour,  large  beak,  hardness  of  feather,  and  a  great  tendency  to 
produce  hairy  crest  feather,  which  is  a  fatal  fault  on  the  show  bench.  In  select- 
ing your  yellow  give  away  size  of  body  for  smallness  of  beak  if  you  cannot  obtain 
both  good  points  together.  You  have  already  bred  size  in  your  buff.  Be  sure,  above 
all  things,  of  the  pedigree,  and  if  possible  secure  a  clear  yellow  and  match  to  a 
buff-green  of  your  own  strain.  You  should  then  produce  some  clear  body  dark 
Crests.  The  yellows 
from  this  cross  will  be 
invaluable  to  you  for  in- 
breeding your  own  yel- 
low blood,  but  care 
should  be  taken  not  to 
overdo  it ;  otherwise  you 
will  defeat  your  own 
object  of  breeding  for 
breadth  of  feather ;  buff, 
bred  from  yellow  and 
buff,  should  be  matched 
with   buff,    bred  from 
J     ^^    1     rr     r  ,  •  Avoid  thc  Crcst  with  thin  hairy  leathers,  and  horny  at  back. 
double  buffs,  for  quality 
of  feather,  but  two  buffs  from  yellow  will  again  reduce  width  of  feather." 
DOUBLE-CREST  BREEDING. 
It  is  specially  interesting  to  note  here  Mr.  T.  C.  Heath's  experience  in  double- 
Crest  breeding.  Writing  upon  the  subject  in  Cage  Birds  in  1904,  he  says  :  "  I  do 
not  think  any  leading  Crest  fancier  of  the  present  day  can  do  without  pairing  Crest 
and  Crest  together  every  few  generations.  The  frequency  of  this  pairing  two 
Crests  together  must  be  left  to  the  judgment  of  the  fancier.  In  pairing  two  Crests 
together  judgment  in  pairing  up  goes  a  long  way.  The  birds  that  you  use  for  this 
purpose  should  have  nice  smooth  crests,  with  good  centre  and  formation,  and  the 
feather  not  too  dense,  bred  from  parents  with  corresponding  good  points  ;  the  better 
the  frontal  crest  the  more  chance  you  have  of  producing  good  show  Crests.  You 
will  not  only  improve  your  crested  stock  by  pairing  up  in  this  way,  but  you  will  get 
a  much  larger  number  of  Crests  than  you  do  Crest-breds,  which  should  be  a  great 
advantage,  as  a  Crest  will  always  fetch  three  or  four  times  as  much  as  a  Crest-bred. 
AA  2 
