The Lizard Canary Association

In Canary and Cage-bird Life for April 16th, 1909, Mr. L. Butterworth's lecture to the Rochdale Ornithological Club on " The Lizard Canary Fancy, Past and Present,' is given. In it, this lemon-yellow varia­tion, with its tendency to become paler, is described in connection with the Lizard Canary of forty years ago. ( 1869)

"When I first started to breed the Lizard Canary there was a strain of Lizards which was very plentiful in and around Rochdale, known as the Lemon Lizard, or Lemon Jonque, on account of the cap being a pale yellow colour, somewhat the colour of a lemon. In its nest feathers it had a back full of straight, narrow rowing; but after its first moult the colour of its cap and the tips of the small feathers were of the same pale yellow colour, the spangle being not nearly so distinct as that of the orange-coloured variety. Breeders, seeing that it stood no chance on the show bench, refused to breed with it, and, consequently, in a few years the strain died out.

About the same time there was another strain, known as the Flat or Hollow backed Lizard. This was a class of bird with a back full of large, distinct spangling, or moons, as we called them. The moons were distributed all over the back and not in straight, regular rows, as you see them in the Lizards of today. This class of birds had very often a split or parting down the centre of the back, and as it very rarely got into the money at any show, it gradually became scarce, until it has almost met with the same fate as the Lemon Jonque. I should never pair two golds or two silvers together without a special reason . . I remember experimenting in this direction many years ago. I paired a gold cock with a gold hen, and succeeded in breeding some decent young from the pair. Then I inbred with two of the young ones, also both golds. The result was the feathers on the young birds bred from the inbred pair, instead of lying close to the body grew the wrong way about. They turned up over the back just like those on a Frizzle fowl, which convinced me that you can go too far in that direction."

possibly the birth of the frills maybe ???

You could be right there Steve , if the oldest known varieties of canary are the Belgian , Lizard and London Hoax ---sorry Fancy , then all todays varieties must have come from them . You know my thoery that all canaries come from the cinnamon .

i love all this stuff,just wish i was 25 years younger i would love to try out a few theories...