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Our  Canaries 
THE    GREEN    OF    THE  PAST. 
Writing  of  the  Green  Canary  of  former  days,  Mr.  S.  Hadwin,  of  Liverpool, 
says :  "  The  original  variety  of  the  Green  family  was  the  Yorkshire,  or,  as  it  was 
known,  the  Liverpool  Green,  on  account  of  the  fact  that  it  was  almost  entirely 
confined  to  the  Liverpool  District.  It  is  some  forty  years  ago  since  it  began  to 
take  its  place  as  a  recognised  exhibition  specimen.  At  that  time  there  was  no 
standard  of  type,  the  bird  being  judged  almost  entirely  for  its  colour.  A 
Lancashire-cum-Yorkshire  designation  would  best  describe  its  appearance  as  it 
existed  then.  But  what  the  birds  lacked  in  type  they  made  up  in  colour,  which 
was  of  a  rich,  deep  dark  green,  the  best  illustration  being  evergreens  with  the 
frost  of  winter  on  them,  showing  that  bright  polish  without  which  specimens 
always  have  a  washed-out  appearance  ;  the  pencillings  were  clearly  defined  and 
full  of  rich  pigments,  dark,  and  by  contrast  throwing  into  full  relief  the  lighter 
shade  of  the  feather's  web ;  the  feet  and  beak,  black  and  polished,  giving  a  grand 
finish  to  an  almost  perfect  colour  scheme. 
"  Compared  with  the  old  Greens  the  Yorkshire  Greens  of  to-day  are  lacking 
in  colour.  They  have  not  that  rich  brightness ;  they  have  not  the  clearly 
defined  distinction  between  the  quill  and  the  web  of  the  feathers  ;  they  have  not 
the  jet  black  polished  legs  and  beak  of  their  ancestors ;  taking  them  all  round 
they  have  that  greyish,  smoky,  blurry  appearance  which  is  very  undesirable  in  a 
bird  of  colour.  But  they  have  type  almost  equal  to  their  clear  brethren,  and  it 
is  pleasing  to  note  that  several  of  the  factors  which  made  for  the  loss  of  colour 
are  being  eliminated,  and  it  is  now  possible  to  imagine  that  at  no  distant  date 
the  old  colour  will  be  revived,  and  the  present  type  kept." 
THE  TWO  COLOUR  TONES. 
In  Greens,  as  in  light  plumaged  varieties,  there  exist  the  two  fundamental 
tones  of  yellow  and  buff,  and  how  to  distinguish  yellow-greens  from  buff-greens 
is  often  a  difficult  problem  with  the  beginner.  The  difference  is  certainly  more 
difficult  to  convey  in  writing  than  that  existing  between  light  plumaged  birds,  but 
a  clean  healthy  holly  leaf  just  reaching  maturity  will  make  the  task  easy. 
Look  at  the  upper  surface  of  the  leaf,  and,  apart  from  its  gloss  and  polish,  which 
we  need  not  take  into  account,  we  find  a  uniform  tone  of  solid  green  without  a 
suggestion  of  any  suffusion  by  a  foreign  tone.  Now  turn  over  the  leaf  and  study 
the  colour  of  the  under  surface.  The  first  thing  that  strikes  you  is  that  it  is  a 
decidedly  lighter  shade  of  green.  But  this  is  not  all.  The  colour  is  certainly 
green,  but  even  if  we  imagine  it  to  be  the  same  depth  of  tone  as  the  upper  surface 
there  is  a  subtle  difterence,  difficult  to  explain,  which  convinces  us  they  would 
still  stand  apart  as  different  shades  of  colour.  The  under  surface  is  in  fact  suftused 
with  a  "  bloom,"  so  to  speak,  of  grey,  or  ashen,  and  compared  with  the  upper 
surface  may  be  likened  to  a  "  bloomy"  ashen-green.    A  similar  distinction  will  be 
