Looking 
Backward. 
(191) THE BIRD WORLD. 
size was concerned. From Lancashire 
came these big birds, and in plenty too. 
The chief breeding centres being around 
Liverpool, St. Helens, and Prescot, the 
latter place taking the lead. “ A real 
good Prescot Norwich ” was the highest 
form of praise that a Northern breeder 
of the later eighties could bestow upon 
any bird. 
Open Show Cages. 
Prescot Norwich were shown in open 
wire cages, and not in the box cages 
similar to those now in use. The 
Lancashire breeders were wedded to the 
open wire show cages, and it was many 
years later that they discarded them al¬ 
together, some years, even after I 
became known as an All-England judge. 
Many hundreds of Norwich have I 
judged in these cages at shows in the 
North, North-West, and West districts 
of the county Palatine. These cages 
were longer and broader than those used 
by Yorkshire fanciers, but were not so 
tall. I certainly cannot claim for them 
that they were nice to look upon, but 
one advantage they certainly had over 
the now universal box cage, a judge 
could see all over a bird at once. 
An Age of Progress. 
It is not only in the style and form 
of their cages that Norwich breeders of 
the North have made progress, but also 
in the shape and form of their birds. 
Prescot held the lead when the big birds 
were asked for, and it has held the lead 
many a time since. From the town, 
famous for its watch and electrical 
equipment works, have came some of the 
most typical and high quality Norwich 
of modern days. The men of the North 
went too far in their craze for large birds, 
and a reaction set in amongst the men 
of the East, the West, and the South. 
Agitation in the papers of the time led 
to the calling together of the famous 
Conference at the Crystal Palace in 
1890. At that historical gathering it 
was said 300 or 400 breeders were pre¬ 
sent, the majority coming from the city 
of Norwich, although other parts of the 
country sent a fairly large number, and 
the result was that a new standard was 
decided upon. 
Type , the Battle Cry. 
Henceforth, it was decided, the birds 
were to be judged more for type, and the 
length was limited to 6*4 in., so as to 
shut out the long-sided birds, whose 
over-hanging eyebrows and shaggy 
thighs gave evidence of crest blood 
running in their veins. Type! This 
was the battle cry, and from that day to 
this has more and more attention been 
given to type, thanks in very great 
measure to the action of the Norwich 
Plainhead Club, which was formed 
in 1897, principally because of the type 
question, and whose efforts of recent 
years have been backed up by those of 
the Scottish Norwich Plainhead Club, 
the Northern and Border Counties Nor¬ 
wich Club, and the Southern Norwich 
Plainhead Club, each of which have a 
strong virile membership, and are 
yearly becoming stronger and stronger. 
Evolution. 
Evolution is, we are told, continually 
going on in the world around us. There 
is no standing still. New types and 
forms are being evolved in every direc¬ 
tion, and when one looks back to the 
early eighties we see many changes in 
the Norwich fancy. At that time Nor¬ 
wich was the great stronghold of the 
Canary named after it, the breed having 
been evolved, it is generally supposed, 
by the men of Norwich, from the now al¬ 
most extinct, London fancy, and the 
Lizard. After Norwich came North¬ 
ampton, Coventry, Nottingham, and 
Plymouth as great breeding centres. 
Now all this is altered, and the Norwich 
Plainhead has become more universally 
popular, and one finds knots of breeders 
scattered all over the kingdom.. The 
City of Norwich'no longer leads in the 
production of high-class exhibition birds, 
even though it does in mere numbers. 
It has had to strike its flag to the men 
of Lancashire. 
