Our  Canaries  299 
the  last  touch  of  charm  to  an  already  noble  and  beautiful  bird.  The  difficulty  of 
breeding  these  birds  is  very  great,  and  has  given  rise  to  a  general  belief  among  the 
modern  school  of  fanciers  that  the  one  with  which  they  are  most  familiar — the 
clear-body  dark-crest — was  merely  a  sport,  and  could  not  be  bred  by  any  known 
and  reliable  system— a  wholly  unfounded  belief,  though  it  must  be  admitted  there 
is  no  royal  road  by  which  the  goal  may  be  reached  with  certainty.  But  we  are  as 
yet  only  at  the  beginning  of  the  new  era  of  re-establishing  markings  and  variations 
upon  the  modern  bird  which  has  been  evolved  from  the  old  type — markings  which 
were  judiciously,  perhaps  even  necessarily,  quite  ignored  during  the  up-building 
of  the  fabric  upon  which  they  must  now  be  implanted  anew.  This  disregard  of  a 
set  type  of  markings  has  produced  a  bird  with  such  variable  traits  that  it  is  no 
uncommon  thing  to  find  every  bird  produced  in  a  brood  of  a  different  class  of 
marking.  From  a  clear-body  dark-crest  mated  to  a  clear  Crest-bred  we  have 
had  in  a  brood  of  four  a  clear  Crest-bred,  a  dark-capped  Crest-bred  with  one  tick 
on  body,  a  variegated  dark-crest,  and  a  clear-body  yellow  Crest,  and  this 
experience  is  by  no  means  unique." 
HOW  IT  MAY  BE  DONE. 
Writing  on  this  subject  Mr.  H.  Mills,  of  Northampton,  says:—"  Breeding 
for  such  varieties  as  the  clear-body  dark-crest,  wing-marked  dark-crest,  or  dark- 
capped  and  clear-bodied  Crest-bred,  requires  close  observation  to  see  how  the 
birds  'throw.'  Some  will  'throw  '  lightly  marked  birds;  others  nearly  all  green. 
Green  blood  and  clear  blood  are  both  required  to  produce  the  clear-body  dark- 
crest.  To  begin  pair  a  clear-crested  cock  with  a  green  Crest-bred  hen  ;  or  a 
grizzle-crested  cock  with  a  green  Crest-bred  hen ;  or  a  green-capped  hen  may  be 
mated  with  a  lightly  marked  cock.  To  breed  a  show  specimen  you  must  keep 
the  length  of  head  feather.  I  once  paired  a  two-wing-marked  dark-crested  cock 
with  a  green  Crest-bred  hen  that  bred  in  one  season  a  clear-body  cock  that  won 
several  prizes  ;  a  two- wing-marked  dark-crest ;  two  variegated  birds ;  a  grizzle- 
crest  ;  and  two  green  Crest-breds,  that  all  won  prizes  for  me.  I  once  tried  the 
experiment  of  pairing  two  Crest-breds — a  dark-capped  Crest-bred  cock  and  a  clear 
yellow  Crest-bred  hen.  I  had  two  clear  hens  from  them — one  yellow  and  the 
other  buff.  I  paired  the  yellow  with  a  green-crested  cock,  and  in  the  first  nest  I 
had  a  clear-body  dark-crest.  In  the  next  nest  I  had  three  clear  body  dark-crests, 
all  hens,  and  not  one  of  them  fit  for  the  show  bench,  but  useful  stock  birds.  I 
remember  a  fancier  of  our  town  buying  a  clear  yellow  Crest-bred  hen  that  had 
been  double-Crest-bred  for  years  to  pair  with  a  good  Crest  cock,  and  he  bred  one 
of  the  finest  crested  hens  I  have  ever  seen — very  thick  crest  and  wonderfully  neat. 
Therefore  you  will  see  that  it  is  possible  to  breed  a  good  bird  in  a  number  of  ways." 
This  experience  of  breeding  with  two  Crest-breds  is  at  once  novel  and  interesting, 
and  scarcely  to  be  recommended  in  a  general  way.  Much  of  its  success  must 
depend  upon  the  birds'  pedigree  and  an  innate  tendency  to  transmit  certain 
desirable  features  to  their  progeny. 
