From J. J. Weir   3 June 1868

My Dear Sir

I have all my life been an Ornithophilist but felt that I had scarcely been “Fancier” enough to venture to answer your questions on the Canary.¹ I therefore went yesterday to make further enquiries at Spital Fields, but could not learn all I wanted to know, however I heard of a certain M^r. J Waller of Tabernacle Row² Hairdresser who was looked upon as a great authority, on the subject of the “London Fancy”.—

I determined therefore to visit him & have my hair cut although it was very short already, he operated upon me this day for about half an hour chatting all the time on the subject, and turned me out with a Newgate cut for which I paid Three Pence.—

But I have now quite grasped the whole question   It appears that Mealy, Buff, Jonques, Pied and Lizards are all the same when young as when mature, the plumage becoming a little brighter in the adult state & the males even from the nest being brighter than the females.—³

Now the London Fancy when in the nesting feathers are Lizards except with lighter beaks that is their bodies are spangled, wings & tail dark & crown of the head either yellow or mealy, in the first molt— they change all the feathers of their body but not the wing & tail feathers, these however when moulted in the next season become much lighter and ultimately all yellow except a slight color in the shaft.—⁴

But should any wing or tail feather be lost by accident during the first year it is replaced by a much lighter feather.—

To sum up These birds are Lizards in the nesting plumage, London Fancy after the first molt, and either Jonque or Mealy in the second or subsequent molts.—

There is no doubt but that the “London Fancy” are one aberration or sport from the Lizard, their light beaks shew the tendency to albinism or rather if such a word be permissable to Xanthism,⁵ if we consider the case analogous to the Cygnets of the common swan it appears to me all difficulty vanishes.—

The reason that they are Show birds for one year only is because the dark feathers are not all moulted simultaneously, if however a nesting plumaged bird were to have all the wing & tail feathers pulled out it would in the first season be a Jonque or mealy.—

I examined a ♀ Pavo cristatus in Leadenhall market on my way back which was spurred.—⁶

The birds which listened to the piping bullfinch were linnets, canaries, and one Wydah bird (Vidua erythroryncha).—⁷

It is quite true that birds reared by foster parents

Would you kindly give me one or two autographs on separate pieces of paper from your letter.— J J W⁸