two buff Coppies, in place of a buff and a yellow, and the result is generally the production of rough- and slack-feathered birds. Discard all birds to breed from that inherit grave faults, such as open centres, split side or frontal crests, bareness at the base of the skull or neck, with back and tails inclined to be circular, cross wings, loose ungainly tails, or birds that are narrow in the head, and with thin scraggy necks or weakly legs, or birds that do not stand erect on the perch. As soon as you succeed in producing birds of a good stamp you must adopt the plan I have frequently recommended for many years in breeding birds of other varieties, viz., consanguinity or in-breeding, for there is nothing to equal it when used in moderation for perpetuating the features you desire to retain.

Lancashire birds, like their progenitors, the Dutch and Belgian canaries, are not reliable nurses; very few of them excel in this respect, and the males I have generally found to be worse than the females. Therefore, if you decide to breed birds of this kind, by all means obtain a few good reliable foster parents, either German, Cinnamons, Greens, or Crossbreds (between the Yorkshire and Norwich variety), all of which as a rule are good nurses, otherwise you will not succeed in your endeavours, although you may put up several pairs to breed from. Another great drawback to these large and noble birds, the Lancashires, is their great lack of stamina; they are far from robust and vigorous birds, taken as a whole, and they are prone to be affected by those terrible maladies, asthma and and consumption, which are probably the most troublesome and fatal complaints that affect the canary.

Some of the specimens I have seen have evidently been crossed with the Belgian canary, but these are much thinner in the body, considerably narrower in the head, and flat at the sides; furthermore, they exhibit a little of the Belgian shape in the curvature of the back, and are never possessed of such expansive crests as those which are full of the old Dutch canary.

STANDARD OF EXCELLENCE.-100 points to be taken as a maximum of perfection.

STANDARD FOR JUDGING LANCASHIRE COPPIES.

CHAPTER XII.

THE YORKSHIRE FANCY.

THE bird fanciers in London, Norwich, Scotland, and other towns and countries, each have a special and distinct variety of canary of their own; and Yorkshiremen, actuated, no doubt, with the laudable desire to aim at originality, and to emulate the example set by their confrères, have attempted to establish a variety of canaries peculiar to the county of "broad acres." With this object in view, they have striven to produce a breed of birds differing in some respects from all known varieties, and, to some extent, their endeavours have been crowned with success. At the present moment this breed of birds may be regarded as being in its infancy, but no doubt in the course of a few more years we shall see a marked progress and improvement in them.* Improvement always takes a considerable time to develope-in anything appertaining to perfection-a new variety of any description, whether it be birds, animals, plants, flowers, or what not, for in point of fact there is invariably a diversity of opinion, even among those who are considered best able to judge of their merits or demerits, as to what ought to constitute an essential quality and what a disparagement; and until these differences are finally set at rest onward progress is sure to be retarded.

BREEDING.-The Yorkshire Fancy birds are produced chiefly by crossing the Belgian Fancy and some other varieties of canaries together, such, for instance, as the Manchester Coppy,

Since the foregoing was written a marked improvement in the contour of these birds has taken place.