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1. Yellow (non colour-fed) 2. Buff (Cayenne-fed) 3. Yellow (Cayenne-fed) |
2. Even-Marked Yellow (Yorkshire type) 3. Even-marked Yellow (Norwich - cayenne fed) |
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1. Yellow (non colour-fed) 2. Buff (Cayenne-fed) 3. Yellow (Cayenne-fed) |
2. Even-Marked Yellow (Yorkshire type) 3. Even-marked Yellow (Norwich - cayenne fed) |
| A
Sex-Linked Recessive Character
Cinnamon is a common mutation in wild birds but it is rarely visible in the next generation for although a cinnamon bird will pass genes for cinnamon colouring to its young, they will often be in a hidden, or recessive, form. If such 'cinnamon carriers' mate in turn with a normal coloured bird, few of the young will have cinnamon plumage. It is only when birds are domesticated, and pairings can be artificially controlled, that it is possible to breed nests full of cinnamon youngsters. Historically this was done by breeding closely-related birds: mother/ son, or father/ daughter - which concentrates the recessive genes to produce visible cinnamon birds. This was something of a mystery to fanciers in the 18th and 19th Centuries but they gradually worked out that it took 'sib-bred' pairings (sibling-bred) to consistently produce nests of cinnamon young.
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The
First Domestic Mutation ?
Cinnamon was probably the first mutation to occur after the Spaniards domesticated the wild canary (serinus canaria), in the early 1500s. The French writer Hervieux listed cinnamon as a distinct variety in his Traite aux Serins (1713) and they would have been established as a breed for many years. Cinnamons were valued for the fine quality of their plumage and, even today, most fanciers believe cinnamon birds have the smoothest and finest feathers of all canaries. British fanciers beleived that cinnamon blood exerted a strong influence on the production of 'evenly marked' birds, which were the ultimate challenge for the canary breeder from the 1800s until the 1960s. Today, few fanciers attempt to produce such exquisitely marked birds, though Yorkshire canary fanciers still breed for 'technical marks'. Cinnamon
as a Variety in its own right
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