. The canary, its varieties, management and breeding. Canaries. 36 The Canary, CHAPTER VI. OUR LONDON FANCY BIRDS. F all the varieties of the canary, perhaps this is the most beautiful of any. It is known in the trade as the London fancy, because it is there that it is chiefly bred. They are of a rich golden yellow or deep orange, with black wings and tail, like the bird represented on the opposite page. About their breeding there is much mystery and some peculiarity â which fanciers like to keep to themselves. To get into these secrets is almost, if not quite, as diihcult a matter as to penet
. The canary, its varieties, management and breeding. Canaries. 36 The Canary, CHAPTER VI. OUR LONDON FANCY BIRDS. F all the varieties of the canary, perhaps this is the most beautiful of any. It is known in the trade as the London fancy, because it is there that it is chiefly bred. They are of a rich golden yellow or deep orange, with black wings and tail, like the bird represented on the opposite page. About their breeding there is much mystery and some peculiarity â which fanciers like to keep to themselves. To get into these secrets is almost, if not quite, as diihcult a matter as to penetrate into the mysteries of training a race- horse for the Derby or St. Leger. One thing is certain, that to produce them in a state fit for exhibition at the annual show at Sydenham, as much training and atten- tion, united with skill, is required as is necessary to bring a high-bred racer to the post. Not only must the bird be fed on the most nutritious and dainty food, but the sides of his cage must be encased with glass to shade him from every draught of wind; and he must be kept at a high temperature, like the race-horse, to pro- duce that condition and glossiness in his plumage which shall enable his owner to obtain the prize. That it is strictly a cross-bred bird I have no doubt, inasmuch as there is this peculiarity about it, that when quite young it is mottled all over on the back something after the fashion of a Lizard, and that it only acquires its clear golden yellow after its moulting, and then retains only the pure black of its wings and tail the first year. The. Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original Smith, F. London, Warne
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