THE CRESTED CANARY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5689, 7 October 1896, Page 4

THE CRESTED CANARY.

At a recent meeting of the London Cage Bird Association, Mr'Compton read a paper on the created canary, . which proved to be of the greatest . interest to the members. The following is an abstract from the paper :— " My own idea is that the crest should be perfectly round in circumference at the end of the crest feathers, the centre of the crest to be in a straight line with each eye, well filled in all round, only to allow the space of a pin's point to fit in without it touching the crest feathers, the feathers of which should be long and wide on each side of the quill, closely webbed, carrying the same width round the end of feather; the more dense the crest the better with the upper rows of feathers of the same length and uniform in shape, the under small feathers to grow in the same direction as their finer brethren, as it is these little obstinate fellows which cause a great deal of trouble in the crest family in shape. The crest should be the same as a perfect grown button mushrpom, with a nice dip in centre of top. The beak, which gives great character to crest properties, should be carefully considered when mating up stock pairs ; it should be short and small at the base, which greatly improves the appearance of the crest ; the throat should be clearly arched out from the under mandible, so as to form a nice curve to the commencement of the breast ; the neck likewise should be short and massive, causing the back of the head and shoulders to appear one massive block; the breast should be broad and deep in front with a good curve to the under part of the vent ;"the sides of the bird to bo long and massive, not flat, but of round appearance ; wings long in flights, coming to a point and resting upon the tail, which should be strong in feather, slightly rounded at the end, not a fish tail as it is commonly called. -Mow, gentlemen, thwe is one particular point to which I would draw your special attention in this splendid variety of bird, and the one which I < all the 'finish/ and that is those graceful feathers .above and tinder the tail, ai:tl which hang on each side so beautifully on good specimens, and which certainly denotes good Wood, and without winch I don't consider a bird rmshed." We (Foultry and Dog Chronicle) quote si portion of a paper rep^d at the last Louden Cage Birds Association upon the crested sanary, and the reader called particular itteution to what he called the "fiDish," viz : " That is those graceful feathers ibovo and under the tail, and which hang so gracefully on good specimens." In poultry literature these feathers would be jailed the saddle- feathers, or saddle liackle feathers ; but the extra plumage seems to be so new to canary men that they ire at a loss how to name it. The cochin it one time was a hard feathered bird; but now he is soft ; the game cock short on the ieg, but lo and behold, he is on stilts in this stage, and so we presume with the canary, new devel6pments are taking place on account of the *reat demand for quantity of crest, size, feather. But what about fixity of , type ? md just fancy an expert lecturing upon the beauties of the breed being at fault For a name ; the one of " fad " would mswer the purpose admirably. The blue Spanish has gone out of existence, and the laced Andalusian takes its place. The small, weedy, soft feathered Brahma and Cochin lias taken the place of the large bodied, useful, table fowl j and so we suppose it ivill be with the canary, they will be improved to suit faddists, till we shall hardly iriow them as canaries at all. *