a delegate to represent each district at the meeting to be held in Hawick on 5 July to decide on a suitable name for the variety and to discuss the desirability of forming a club to draw up a standard of points and further the interests of the breed.


About that time the variety began to spread from its stronghold throughout all the counties on both sides of the Border. Its outstanding charm when exhibited at the local shows captivated all who saw it, but its chief supporters were still to be found around the Border Counties of Dumfries, Roxburgh and Selkirk. From the year 1882 to 1890 (when the Border Fancy Canary Club was formed) a very long, keen and heated controversy took place in the Fancy Press of that time between the breeders of Scotland and England, The bird was exhibited in Scotland as the Common Canary and in England as the Cumberland Fancy, each country claiming to be its birthplace. The late Mr J B Richardson of Dumfries, writing under the nom de plume of Veritas clearly proved the fact that it was bred in Scotland long before it was known in England. Perhaps an account of the formation of the Border Fancy Canary Club may be instructive and interesting to readers and to any members who are not quite clear concerning its origin. On 23 June 1890 a circular was sent out by the late Mr Thomas Arnot, of Hawick, to all secretaries of shows asking them to elect


08 BIRD SCENE


A large number of delegates attended and appointed Mr Richardson chairman, After a friendly discussion a resolution was passed disapproving of the names Common Canary and Cumberland Fancy and declared that on and after that date the bird should be known as the Border Fancy Canary. A club was then formed and called the Border Fancy Canary Club, Mr J B Richardson was appointed president and Mr Thomas Arnot of Hawick, secretary, with a committee of six. Messrs Richardson and Arnot were largely responsible for the formation of the club and the drafting of the rules, and I can confidently say that without their enthusiastic leadership the Border Fancy Canary would never have reached the high state of perfection to which it has attained. At a meeting in Langholm in 1891, held to select a model from the leading birds shown that season the two leading judges appointed were Mr Bell of Jedburgh and Mr Davidson of Dumfries. The bird finally chosen was shown by Mr McMillan of Langholm. This model is one of the wonders of the Fancy and a portrayal of the bird was for some years contained in the rules as a guide for the aspirant to follow and attempt to equal. The above is printed by the kind


permission of the Border Fancy Canary Club, the founding club.


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