Crested curiousities Taylor's auctions-FI

Crested curiousities Gloster corona (Brooks 1950)-FSS

Crested curiousties Crests (Wallace 1893)-FSS

Crested curiousities Crest (House 1923)-FSS

Crested curiosities

Posted on 07/02/202008/02/2020 by Huw Evans 5 Comments

What is it about the head of the canary that appeals so much to the eye? The two canary varieties that I wanted to keep as a teenager both had distinctive heads. One was the Lizard with its cap, the other was the Gloster and its crest. No one kept them locally, and I only […]... Read More

Hogarth Midnight Modern Convrsn The Met-FSS

Sing a song of sixpence

Posted on 29/12/2019 by Huw Evans 5 Comments

“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

Book review: “A Passion for Natural History”

Posted on 12/05/201910/07/2019 by Huw Evans Leave a comment

“. . . 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

Bird challenge Bells Sporting Chronicle-FSS

What’s in a name: the Fancy

Posted on 04/01/2019 by Huw Evans 2 Comments

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 ety The Plague of Marseilles-FSS

A New Way of Breeding Canary Birds

Posted on 23/12/2018 by Huw Evans 4 Comments

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

Yorkshire canaries Western Counties show-FSS

The good old days?

Posted on 07/12/201707/12/2017 by Huw Evans 7 Comments

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

Posted on 03/12/2017 by Huw Evans 12 Comments

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

fine spangled sort

The London Fancy and the Lizard canary

History