Controlling Cinnamons

Controlling the influence of cinnamon within a strain is quite easy, provided the way the cinnamon factor is inherited is understood. This guide outlines the basic principles of genetics and gives a few simple rules for the beginner.
Canaries can show two melanin pigments: black and brown. Together these two make up the colour we call “green”. When the black pigment shows neither in the feather nor in the colour of the eye, every trace of black disappears, leaving brown feathering and a red eye. Such a bird is known as a cinnamon.
There is no need to fight shy of using cinnamon in a modern Yorkshire strain. Cinnamons are strong, handsome birds, they are capable of winning at the biggest shows and have proved it many times over at national level. All that is needed is to work in the knowledge of what cinnamon means genetically. Know that, and you can control the cinnamon factor and turn its influence in your own strain to advantage.

How cinnamon is inherited

Cinnamon is a recessive and sex-linked factor. What does that mean? The genes responsible for the inheritance of cinnamon are carried on the sex chromosomes, so the inheritance follows the same path as the inheritance of sex. Sex linkage lets us understand how the cinnamon gene travels down the generations.

Cinnamon is recessive to green, the canary's natural feather colour. When green is paired to cinnamon, green is dominant and the cinnamon factor stays hidden. This is what the fancier calls a carrier: the bird carries the cinnamon gene but does not show it. Because of sex linkage, only a cock can be a carrier.

Put very simply, inheritance is the coming together of equal numbers of genes from the mother and the father when sperm meets egg. That union forms the first cell of the new bird — the zygote. As the zygote divides and develops, every gene comes either from the mother or from the father. As a rule each gene passes on the character it carries faithfully. This is why experienced breeders watch the parents of young birds closely, particularly through the period when size is developing.

Chromosomes carry the genetic code and can be pictured as pearls threaded on a string. Each gene differs from the rest in carrying a different piece of information or a different character.

Cocks take an X chromosome from both their mother and their father, and so have two X chromosomes. Hens take an X from their father and a Y from their mother. When a cock's two X chromosomes are the same, the bird develops pure: a true green or a true cinnamon. If one differs from the other the bird will look green, because green is dominant; the cinnamon gene it carries stays recessive, that is, hidden.

With hens it is different. A hen has a single X chromosome and always takes it from her father; she is therefore either a true green or a true cinnamon. A hen cannot physically be a carrier of cinnamon.

How sex is determined

The chromosomes that determine the sex of the youngsters are the X and the Y. A hen carries one X and one Y, a cock carries two X chromosomes. A young cock takes one X from his father and one from his mother, while a young hen takes an X from her father and a Y from her mother. So it is the hen that determines the sex of the youngsters; the cock has no influence on it.

Cinnamon pairings

Now that we know how the cinnamon factor is inherited, we can put it to work. The table below shows every possible pairing and what can be expected from each of them genetically.

Pairings and expected results

The possible pairings

Since we have three kinds of cock (normal, cinnamon and cinnamon carrier) and two kinds of hen (normal and cinnamon), there are six possible pairings in all: two with a normal cock, two with a cinnamon cock and two with a cinnamon carrier cock.

When a normal cock is used

Whichever hen a normal cock is paired to, no cinnamon-feathered bird can come from him. What is more, all of his daughters will be entirely free of the cinnamon gene. Paired to a normal hen, his sons will be free of cinnamon too. Paired to a cinnamon hen, his sons will carry the cinnamon gene as a recessive, that is, hidden.
In short, breeding from normal cocks reduces the proportion of cinnamon in the strain; kept up, it will in the end drive the cinnamon factor out of the strain altogether.

When a cinnamon cock is used

Every youngster out of a cinnamon cock takes the cinnamon gene from him. Paired to a cinnamon hen, all the youngsters will be cinnamon. Paired to a normal hen, every daughter will be cinnamon and every son a cinnamon carrier.
This is where sex-linked inheritance shows itself most plainly: pair a cinnamon cock to green hens and every green youngster will be a cock and every cinnamon youngster a hen.

When a cinnamon carrier cock is used

These birds carry both the normal and the cinnamon gene, so they can pass either possibility on to their youngsters. The sons out of a carrier cock paired to a normal hen may or may not be cinnamon carriers — it cannot be told from their appearance. The only way to find out is to put those birds into a test pairing the following season.

A reminder

The six pairings above cover every possibility that can be met with in Yorkshire canaries. If your own result differs from these, you may be mistaken about the genetic make-up of the bird or birds you are using. There are two possibilities in that case: either you are using a bird that passes for a clear and carries a hidden cinnamon somewhere in its genetic background, or you are using a cock that looks green but is a cinnamon carrier.
Cinnamons are handsome birds and produce specimens well able to go for the top awards at any of our big shows. The feather quality of the cinnamon strain is often called “mother feather”; in truth cinnamon feathering has its good, its middling and its bad, just as “normal” feathering does. Every strain needs feather of all kinds if it is to strike a balance in the next breeding season. Cinnamon has earned its place both in the birdroom and on the show bench.