Gripping the upper perch, in positions assumed in display, are the BELGIAN FANCY (left), with head and neck extended at a sharp angle from the body, and the SCOTCH FANCY, with a smoothly arched exhibition posture. A “mop” of large, flat feathers adorns the crown of the CRESTED CANARY (lower left). Unusually long, wavy, and recurved plumage gives the FRILLED CANARY (lower right) the appearance of having been stroked the wrong way. Dandy of the English canaries, the YORKSHIRE (right center) should be slim, long, and straight as a soldier.

By Alexander Wetmore
Originally appeared in the December 1938 issue of the National Geographic Magazine

This Web version COPYRIGHT 2004

The frilled canary, seen perhaps most often in the Netherlands and France, has many of the body feathers long and slightly recurved at the tip, so that the plumage appears loose and fluffy, almost as if some of the feathers were growing upside down (Color Plate II).

This type usually has a clear-yellow color and shows considerable variation in the extent of the frilling.