Sing a song of sixpence
“Sing a song of sixpence a pocket full of rye, Four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie. When the pie was opened the birds began to sing, Oh wasn’t that a dainty dish to set before the king?”... Read More
History
Book review: “A Passion for Natural History”
“. . . and when I saw him on his knees, having spread my drawings on the floor, the better to compare them, I forgot he was Lord Stanley, I knew only that he too loved Nature.” John James Audubon (1)... Read More
What’s in a name: the Fancy
London Fancy, Fife Fancy, Border Fancy, Irish Fancy, Scotch Fancy, the list goes on. Ever wondered why ‘Fancy’ was added to their names? Why not simply London canary, Fife canary, Border canary, Scotch canary?... Read More
A New Way of Breeding Canary Birds
It cost just 1s. 6d. (equivalent to 7.5 pence) when first published. Earlier this month a copy sold for more than 10,000 times as much. Not bad for a small book on breeding canaries.... Read More
The good old days?
I don’t know how he does it, but John Canepa keeps finding fascinating old photographs of people and their birds. He wasn’t able to add anything about the origins of the photographs, but did tell me something about the photo you see at the head of this article: “I believe this one is La Farfa la […]... Read More
Lizard canary basics, part 14: the rise and rise of rowings
Rowing, also known as breastwork, borst tekening, and dessin de la poitrine et flancs (1) has been the rising star in the Lizard’s firmament for as long as I can remember. Anyone who has studied the Lizard’s ancient history will know that the popularity of rowings has been growing steadily for much longer than that.... Read More
A visit to Piet, 2017
2017 has been an eventful year for Piet Renders (1). A fall at work resulted in a broken pelvis and a damaged spine amongst other injuries, and whilst he has recovered, he still has pain and limited mobility in his left arm which has prevented him from returning to work. The fall happened during the […]... Read More