Our  Canaries 
349 
add  stamina  to  the  stock.  Birds  with  plenty  of  green  blood  in  them  are  always 
the  strongest.  In  breeding  for  marked  Yorkshires  use  the  grass  green  birds,  from 
which  you  will  get  darker  markings  ;  and  in  breeding  for  cinnamon-marked  birds 
you  will  always  get  the  best  results  from  a  nicely  marked  bird  paired  with  a  clear, 
as  you  will  not  then  be  filling  your  room  with  a  lot  of  variegated  birds. 
"  A  great  question  among  fanciers  is  whether  it  is  best  to  mate  a  yellow  cock 
to  a  buff  hen,  or  vice  versa.  I  favour  the  buff  cock  and  yellow  hen,  as  I  find  the 
buff  cock  is  more  vigorous  ;  he  has  more  dash,  is  stronger  and  I  find  he  produces 
finer  young.  The  yellow  hen  is  finer  in  quality  as  a  rule,  and  I  think  she  has  a 
greater  influence  on  quality  of  feather  than  the  buff  hen." 
ITS  EARLY  DAYS. 
Concerning  its  rise  and  early  progress  that  old  breeder,  Mr.  J.  Wilman,  says  : 
"  Between  the  years  i860  and  1870  the  Yorkshire  was  shown  for  the  largest  and 
best-feathered  bird— the  three  cardinal  points  being  length,  quality  and  colour. 
Type  and  slimness  were  little  thought  about.  The  longest  and  best  feathered 
bird  won,  but  providing  two  birds  met  of  equal  merit  except  in  colour  the  latter 
decided  which  won.  In  those  days  they  were  bred  from  the  Common  Canary, 
with  a  little  blood  borrowed  from  the  Lancashire  to  produce  length.  Just  before 
the  8o's  an  extra  cross  — the  Norwich — was  introduced  to  improve  the  colour  and 
feather,  and  then  the  Belgian  blood  was  put  in  to  produce  the  type  and  leg. 
From  this  combination,  before  the  end  of  the  8o's,  as  good  specimens  were  pro- 
duced and  shown  as  we  find  to-day.  In  the  early  part  of  the  8o's  I  knew  York- 
shire breeders  to  buy  what  were  called  little  plainheads  which  had  been  brought 
to  Yorkshire,  washed,  put  on  the  show  bench  as  Yorkshires,  and  won  ;  not  once 
but  many  times. 
TWENTY  YEARS  AGO. 
"  I  do  not  think  there  is  a  Yorkshire  Canary  to-day  that  is  better 
in  all  points  than  specimens  shown  20  years  ago,  but  you  will  find  20  to-day 
where  you  would  only  find  one  20  years  ago.  It  has  often  been  said  that  I  was 
the  proposer  of  the  standard  length  limit  of  6f  inches,  but  this  is  not  so.  I  was 
present  at  the  meeting  of  the  Yorkshire  Union  when  the  standard  length  was 
proposed  and  carried.  The  first  proposition  was  6^  inches  when  Mr.  Naylor,  if  I 
remember  rightly,  proposed  as  an  amendment  that  it  should  be  7  inches,  and 
expressed  the  opinion  that  we  were  making  a  mistake  and  did  not  seem  to  realise 
the  natural  length  of  the  bird.  It  was  then  proposed  that  the  length  should  be 
6|  inches,  which  I  was  in  favour  of,  and  which  was  put  to  the  vote  and  carried. 
I  had  never,  at  that  time,  measured  a  bird,  and  voted  in  favour  of  the  middle 
length  proposed,  as  the  happy  medium,  though  Mr.  Naylor  said  he  had  no  doubt 
we  should  some  day  find  we  had  made  a  mistake." 
