Our  Canaries 
have  been  charged  with  cutting  the  feathers,  but  I  defy  anyone  to  cut  them,  as 
I  have  seen  them  on  birds — they  are  not  made  by  human  hands  They  are  mostly 
found  between  the  shoulders  of  birds,  and  can  be  readily  seen.  I  have  seen 
them  on  clear  and  marked  Yorkshires,  therefore  I  am  satisfied  that  it  is  some- 
thing that  cannot  be  avoided." 
That  these  remarks  are  justified  we  can  testify  and  are  fully  convinced  that 
whatever  may  be  the  cause  in  any  particular  case,  these  square-tipped  feathers, 
which  are  sometimes  remarkably  similar  to  a  mechanically  cut  feather,  do  very 
often  occur  quite  naturally,  and  not  only  on  Greens,  but  upon  other  colour  birds, 
and  have  also  found  them  upon  British  birds  we  have  reared  by  hand.  They  are 
therefore,  not  peculiar  to  Green  Canaries,  although  it  must  be  admitted  they  seem 
to  occur  in  this  variety  more 
commonly  than  others.  The 
true  cause,  we  believe,  will  be 
discovered  in  some  slight  ab- 
normality in  the  bursting  of 
the  quill  when  the  feather  is 
growing,  the  point  of  the 
quill  drying  up  at  the  tip  and 
preventing  the  tip  of  the 
feather  forcing  its  way 
through.     This    is  probably 
aided   by  the  feather  growing  Square  Feathers,  with  a  normal  one  at  top. 
from  a  position  where  the  bird 
cannot  easily  preen  it  to  assist  in  breaking  the  quill  at  the  proper  time,  and 
later  on  when  the  feather  has  grown  longer  and  the  bird  can  easily  preen  it, 
the  tip  of  the  quill  which  has  grown  hard  and  become  attached  to  the  enclosed 
feather  is  broken  off  together  with  the  extreme  end  of  the  web.  We  have 
seen  this,  as  we  have  attempted  to  describe  it,  happen  when  rearing  birds  by 
hand,  and  in  some  cases  the  resulting  feather  will  present  a  square  tip  as 
though  cut  across  with  a  pair  of  scissors.  The  reason  Greens  are  more 
often  affected  than  other  varieties  is,  we  believe,  readily  explained  by  the 
texture  of  the  feather  being  different,  and  lending  itself  more  readily  to 
damage  of  this  kind.  Still  there  is  always  a  risk  in  exhibiting  a  bird  badly 
affected  with  these  square  feathers,  as  it  is  generally  an  object  of  suspicion,  and 
may,  as  has  happened  in  recent  times,  get  the  owner  disqualified  for  trimming. 
BREEDING    YORKSHIRE  GREENS. 
Mr.  R.  E.  Helliwell,  of  Halifax,  has  kindly  contributed  the  following  notes 
on  the  breeding  of  Yorkshire  Greens,  in  which  the  use  of  the  Cinnamon  sport  is 
again  commended.    We  mention  this  specially  here  in  order  to  warn  the  novice 
of  falling  into  the  error  of  using  a  Cinnamon  of  the  pure  Cinnamon  breed  in  this 
