THOUGHTS ON CLEARWINGS

The following articles were published in The Clearwing Clarion, the official journal of The Clearwing Budgerigar Breeders Association, in 1995 and 1996. They demonstrate the debate over the definition and specification of the variety that has continued in the UK for the sixty years or so since it was first imported. The writers of the articles have 100 years experience of Clearwings between them and are both authors in their own right. Ken Gray's book Rainbow Budgerigars and Constituent Varieties is the standard reference on Rainbows and Malcolm Freemantle's The Art of Breeding Clearwings the standard reference on Clearwings.

Regular readers of Budgerigar World will recall three linked articles printed in that journal last year [1994]. I refer to the ones which commenced in February with George Duffield from Adelaide sharing with readers his knowledge of the Australian Clearwing.

George traced the history of the mutation in Australia and mentions the white or light tail of the genuine Clearwing. (He did not, however, mention that the mutation which occurred in the aviaries of Harold Pier in Sydney, actually occurred in an aviary of Greywings). Terry Tuxford, the BW editor, who has visited the southern continent, inserted a footnote to the article which correctly stated "The requirement of the Australian Standard is for a bird with a light coloured tail, whereas the European Clearwing has a dark tail".

Terry, in his introduction to the article, having seen both Australian and European Clearwings, wrote
"…it is my view that they are separate mutations but have been given the same name. The only other explanation is that one or other of them is a combination variety…".

In a follow-up article printed in the July issue I pointed out that there was indisputable proof that specimens of the Australian mutation did come to Britain in 1936, with further importation later, so the Clearwings in Britain, and in the rest of Europe, are definitely of the same mutation as those in Australia.

I have, in a previous article in the Clarion, mentioned that one of the recipients of birds of the first importation, in a letter, to the late Cyril Rogers in 1938 after two good breeding seasons, wrote
"…These birds are all outstanding in size and type but there seems to be a lot of variation in the purity of the wing colour, even from birds of the same nest".

Cyril, who saw some of those birds, records in his book The World of Budgerigars "I… was amazed at the wonderful depth of body colour and purity of the wings in some specimens, and they were certainly different from any deeply suffused Yellows or Whites we had here…". Note those two words "some specimens". So not all the birds imported as Clearwings, or possibly bred directly from them, had really clear wings. Perhaps P. A. Birch, the writer, had already started outcrossing to Dilutes, Greywings or even Normals, as a part of his breeding programme.

Having had the unrivalled opportunity to read copies of Budgerigar Bulletin of the relevant decade (at his family's request I collected all Cyril Rogers' papers and books, many of which, including all the copies of Budgerigar Bulletin until 1940, are now in Budgerigar Society hands), I have read all the early reports of the mutation, from 1933 onwards, from Australian members of the BS. The actual origin of the mutation is now history, so I will not repeat it.

The third of the BW articles I mentioned, printed in October last year, was really a continuation of my previous one. That third article concentrated on the mutation as it has developed in this country, or been codified in print over the years, by the BS. That is where the tale of a tail comes in, and possibly a winge about the wing markings too.

The Budgerigar Society's present Standards do specify dark long tail feathers - blue for most Yellow-wings and Whitewings, and grey for birds which include the Grey factor in their makeup but it was not always so.

Earlier editions of the Standard, which for many years lumped Yellow-wings with Yellows of Deep Suffusion, and Whitewings with Whites of Deep Suffusion, specified a light tail. In the 1966 BS Handbook the Standard for Yellow-wing Light Greens actually specified "Wings, buttercup. Long tail feathers pale grass-green", with those for the Dark Green, Olive Green and Grey Green "darker in proportion". The Standard for all Whitewings and Whites of Dark Suffusion, whatever their depth of body colour, was "Wings and tail, white or pale blue".

By 1976 the Standard for Yellow-wing Light Green specified, among other alterations, "Cheek patches, violet. Wings, buttercup yellow, as free from markings as possible. Long tail feathers, bluish" (previously 'pale grass-green'.) The Whitewing Skyblue by then had a Standard of its own, which also included "Long tail feathers, bluish". Both the Green and Blue series Dark factor Standards retained the words, "Tail long feathers, darker in proportion", except for the Whitewing Grey which specified a grey tail. Strangely, this did not apply to the Grey Green version.

The 1984 handbook had further alterations, including the tail to be "blue" not '"bluish", except for the Greys and Grey Greens which were both now to be grey. For the first time the colour of feet and legs was mentioned. "blue/grey mottled".

The latest Clearwing Standards, in Colour Standards 1984 indicate much rethinking. Wings which are, of course, still to be buttercup yellow or white, are to be "free from all markings" instead of the rather ambiguous phrase used previously. Primary tail feathers for both Green and Blue series (except Greys and Grey Greens) are still to be blue, with Dark factor birds still "darker in proportion".

With hindsight one can ask, "Why were all these changes made over the years?" The original Standard based on the visual appearance of the Australian bird should surely not have been changed.
I can only hazard a guess that it was because the birds described as Clearwings being bred in Britain at that time by some influential members of the BS did have darker tails. They also seem to have had darker wing markings and to have had mask spots. I feel sure that most of you Clearwing breeders will agree that the depth of colour of all three items deepen or weaken together to the same degree.

So it would seem that the Standards were altered to fit in with what was actually being bred by those fanciers who were trying to increase the substance of Clearwings to bring them up to BS exhibition requirements. "If the larger birds have dark tails then that must be the Standard to which to work" seems to have been the attitude, possibly overlooking, or accepting, that such birds would also have heavier wing markings and, possibly, visual throat spots.

Most readers will know that in addition to breeding Clearwings, I breed Goldenface Rainbows, a continuation of the strain created by Keston Foreign Bird Farm many decades ago. The proprietor is reputed to have used both Whitewings and Opalines direct from Australia, and the Goldenface Blue mutation, also probably direct from the southern continent.

As my strains (Whitewings, Yellow-wings, Rainbows and Goldenface Rainbows) are all to a greater or lesser degree linebred, I do find the occasional bird being bred with a light bluish or greenish tail. Such birds also have wings very, very lightly marked and with clear or slightly colour washed flight feathers. A colour-photograph of one such Whitewing is printed in my book, Rainbow Budgerigars and Constituent Varieties. Such birds have the violet cheek patch and are definitely not Yellow or Whites, neither are they Cinnamon Clearwings.

I consider them to answer to the description of the Clearwings that first came to England from Australia. As many of my birds are bred for purity of colour before other considerations, it is possible that some of the modifying factors (presumed recessive in character) that have darkened or altered the wing markings and tail colour of many present-day Clearwings in Europe, are not present - or if present, are in single factor only, therefore not visible.

I have heard of other Clearwing breeders who also have bred such birds. They do not show them because under present conditions they would be penalised in Britain for having the light tail. Is it not ironical that if exhibited in Australia, the home of the Clearwing, they might well take top awards?

Except for the colour of the tail, the current BS Standards for Clearwings seem to once again be very similar to the Standards in Australia. If we breeders in Britain can lighten the wings to conform to the revised BS Standard, we may find that we also once again have the 'light bluish or greenish tail' and our next published Standard may even acknowledge it.

Should we, as a specialist Society, not be working to that end by convincing the BS that a tail of the colour of the Clearwings in Australia should not be penalised, but actually encouraged. as it usually accompanies what should be our first consideration - clear wings?

It is possible that some Clarion readers are by now a little fed up with reading of my views on the colour of the tails of Clearwings in Britain, as compared to those in the home of the variety, Australia. This is also linked to the subject of the completely clear wings of the Australian birds compared to the pronounced markings on the wings of the British and European equivalent. I make no excuses for writing further on these subjects as I consider that they are the two most important ones we have to face. The Spring 1995 issue edited by Richard Marchbank contained a long article of mine on these subjects.

I mentioned that after many variations to the wording of the Budgerigar Society Colour Standards concerning Clearwings over the last 50 or so years the current standards are very much like the Australian one - except in one very important factor - the colour of the tail The current BS Standards call for a blue tail on both Yellow-wings and Whitewings except for Grey factor birds where it should be grey. The wings, quite correctly, are to be "free from all markings".

In April and May of this year I spent some weeks in Australia where I had the great pleasure of seeing some true Clearwings. Although on a Saga Holidays tour (for the over-60s) whose itinerary filled most of the daylight hours, by prior arrangement and with the help of fanciers in both England and Australia, I was able to visit breeders in both Sydney and Perth and to converse with one in Adelaide by telephone. The visits confirmed what I had long believed to be true and have previously written about.

The colour of the tail of the various body colours of Clearwings is most important as a dark tail seems to invariably accompany marked wings and undesirable mask spots. The Standards we in Britain are working to are definitely wrong. Look out for my article in the BS journal The Budgerigar pointing out this fact and illustrated by the best colour photographs of real Clearwings that I could produce.

One of the breeders whose birdroom I visited was Warren Wilson of Croydon, a suburb of Sydney, New South Wales,, who is a member of the CBBA. Another breeder at Perth in Western Australia is an ex-member. A third fancier, at Blacktown, near Sydney, has been breeding budgerigars since 1937, about the same year that I bred my first. All three have some lovely birds - all with really clear wings.

Warren Wilson greeted me with "Ah, the author of "A Tale of a Tail"" and told me that he agreed wholeheartedly with what I had written. I found that to be a good start - we were on the same wavelength.

He has made really great efforts to improve the substance and "type" of his Clearwings. Many different varieties have been tried as outcrosses but he finds that every variety. except one ruins the clarity of the wings. The one exception is what in Australia are known as Black-Eyed Self Colours (Inos are called Red-Eyed Selfs). I was very pleased to see examples of these as my brothers and I had bred them before the Second World War and we knew the yellow version as the Light (Buttercup) Yellow. I knew that they existed in Australia as John Scobie had shown some colour transparencies of them at the 1990 BS Convention. There is still a BS Standard for the variety but the Rare Variety & Colour BS have recently decided that dilutes of light suffusion are extinct in this country.

I have long thought that the gene or genes that must be present in the Buttercup Yellow to completely clear the wings of all markings is the same gene or pair of them that must be present in the true Clearwings (Cyril Rogers would have very likely called it a "modifying factor").

Warren's experiences seem to confirm this. He showed me a pair of birds with depth of wing markings similar to the majority of birds shown in Clearwing classes in Britain, complete with blue tail (in Australia they would have to be exhibited as Greywings, but that is a different story). From these two birds he can breed a percentage of true Clearwings. This outcome indicates to me that the gene for clarity of wings is an ultra-recessive one, very likely recessive to our Dilutes (suffused Yellows and Whites), and that the two birds mentioned are split for it. If that factor is not present in double factor it would seem that true Clearwings cannot be produced.

Warren said that he was quite happy to have his name and his experiences mentioned. If, by chance, I have mis-quoted him in any way, I hope that he will correct me by writing to the editor.

It is a fact that all true Clearwings in Australia have a tail much lighter in colour than those called for in our BS Standards. The Standards for Clearwings published by the Australian National Budgerigar Council is reproduced below. You will see that the tail quill colour is described as "Neutral" (not to be confused with Cinnamons which have a brown quill) and that the tail feathers are descried as "Neutral with ground or body colour suffusion". Neutral is a sort of off-white, putty colour. So Yellow-wings have a neutral coloured tail with some yellow and/or green suffusion (progressively darker for Dark Greens, Olives and the equivalently darker Grey Greens) and Whitewings have a neutral coloured tail with some blue suffusion (darker for Cobalts Violets and Mauves) or grey suffusion in the case of Greys. All are much lighter than the colour called for in the current BS Standard.

Can we in Britain go on deluding ourselves that we are breeding Clearwings when our birds do not justify that name? Is it not time that we put our house in order?

MASK: To be clear, wide and deep, (not cleft) extending beyond large cheek patches.

GENERAL BODY COLOUR: Back, rump, breast, flanks and underparts to be a solid and even shade throughout.

MARKINGS: Clear ground colour is the optimum. Faint markings are found on cheeks, back of head and neck. Wings to be pure ground colour.

Colour	Cheek Patch	Tail Quill	Tail Feather
LIGHT GREEN	Violet	Neutral	Neutral with ground or body colour suffusion
DARK GREEN	Violet	Neutral	"
OLIVE	Violet	Neutral	"
SKYBLUE	Violet	Neutral	"
COBALT	Violet	Neutral	"
MAUVE	Violet	Neutral	"
VIOLET	Violet	Neutral	"
GREY	Violet	Neutral	"

Footnote
Some of you already know personally Clarence Jones and I mentioned him in the Spring 1996 editorial. Clarrie obtained his first Clearwings in 1938 from stock bred from the original Australian imports and has been breeding them continuously ever since.
When I last saw him, with Ken's well-known views in mind, 1 specifically asked him about tail colour. He said that the tail colour of his Whitewings hasn't changed - it has never been dark - only the Standards have changed. He showed me the tails of his birds and I can best describe them as being the same as the body colour of the bird, fading down the length of the tail from the intense colour at the rump to a neutral tint towards the tip - the darker the shade of blue of the bird, the darker the colour-wash in the tail This seems to reinforce Ken's argument.

My old friend Ken Gray from Essex wrote in the last issue of the Clarion about his trip to Australia and commented on the difference between the Australian and British standard for the Clearwing. Ken wrote that the primary difference is the tail colour; i.e. British = blue, Australian = neutral. I have looked up their definition of "neutral" and it means "a colour aligning with the body colour". The Yellow-wing therefore should have, according to the Australian standard, a very pale yellow-green tail and the Whitewing a very pale blue tail, the dark factors having more depth of colour showing in the tail. This all falls in with Ken’s article.

Ken went on to say that a dark tail invariably accompanies a marked wing and throat spots and I must agree with him that in all cases of heavily marked wings there is a dark tail. However, a dark tail does not mean that the bird must have heavily marked wings and nearly all of our best contrasted birds carry a blue tail. I would also refer members to the photographs in my book The Art of Breeding Clearwings in which pictures of both Whitewing and Yellow-wing show a dark tail. They were taken some time ago and show that both variations are bred and exhibited in Australia in Clearwing classes.

Following the article in the Clarion I received a letter from Rod Forrest in North Queensland about
Ken’s report that Warren Wilson, one of Ken’s contacts in New South Wales, had stated that the only outcross to keep the wings pure was a Black-Eyed Self. Rod, who is a main panel judge and an exhibitor of Clearwings down under, states that "a major factor in the clarity of Black Eyes is cinnamon, for Australian Black-Eyed Selfs are Yellows with cinnamon added to eliminate the black melanin influence. Crossing Black-Eyes into Clearwings therefore introduces cinnamon, which in Australia is a definite no".

Rod goes on to say "the term Black-Eye is not strictly correct, the birds are hatched with red eyes and as the Australian for Black-Eyed Self states ‘Colour: Eyes; dark with a white iris ring’, the same as Cinnamons". If the fanciers Ken visited were using these outcrosses then that explains the tail colour.

The story of A Tale of a Tail must then be viewed in a different light as the cinnamon factor will undoubtedly lighten the tail and at the same time hide the wing markings. I have for a long time felt that many of the best wing-colour Clearwings in Australia are cinnamon founded. Further evidence came from two attempts by English fanciers to hatch eggs from Australian stock. In both cases Cinnamon Clearwings were bred.

I am still firmly of the opinion, and have historical evidence to prove, that tails were never "neutral" and only subsequent pairings to other varieties have changed the shading. The Whitewing has always had a blue tail and the Yellow-wing a blue shaft tinged with green, the depth of colour varying with the shade of body colour.

Whether or not, as Ken says, it is time to put our house in order and get lighter tails is another argument. Better selective breeding will bring this about and at the same time give our exhibition stock good clean wings with strong body colour. With the quest for size still dominant in the fancy I fear it is still some time away!

I knew that what I had to say on the true Clearwings that I had seen and photographed in Australia would not please Malcolm, our hard working General Secretary. He had already told me that he did not agree with what I had written in a previous article which I called A Tale of a Tail. I knew that he was of the opinion that many Australian Clearwings incorporate the cinnamon mutation in their make-up. As in Great Britain and other countries of the world, Clearwing breeders in Australia very likely tried every outcross possible to improve the exhibition qualities of their birds without losing the essential characteristics of the variety - the clear (i.e. devoid of all markings) wings. Of course there may be Clearwing cock birds split for cinnamon in Australia, just as we know there must be some in Britain as well as some split for opaline or even ino.

As I stated, I saw true Clearwings in two aviaries in the Sydney area of New South Wales and at another in Perth in Western Australia, the two cities being over two thousand miles apart, roughly the distance from London to Bahrain. Most readers will have seen the reproductions of my photographs in the Budgerigar Society journal The Budgerigar and possibly in Budgerigar World. Those birds did not show any cinnamon characteristics, neither did the birds I saw at Warren Wilson’s establishment. Unfortunately the photographs I took in Warren’s birdroom are marred by highlights caused by the cage bars and are unfit for printed reproduction, but I am willing to show them to anyone who wishes to see them.

Malcolm has latched onto my mention that in Warren’s many years in the fancy he had found that the only outcross that did not adversely affect the clarity of the wings was what they know as Black-Eyed Selfs (similar to our lost Buttercup Yellows and equivalent Whites) to infer that cinnamon has been introduced into all the Clearwings that I saw and photographed at three different establishments in that vast continent. Does it not occur to Malcolm that Warren Wilson’s trial of the variety as an outcross could well have been many years ago when they were also pure? I did not see any of his Black-Eyed Selfs; I saw his true Clearwings.

Enough of the Black-Eyed Selfs for now. That is a side issue. Let us stick to the subject of the Standard for the true Australian Clearwings - the birds I saw at three establishments. The Standard in Australia states that the tail quill should be "Neutral", and the tail feathers "Neutral with ground or body colour suffusion". Where Malcolm gets his meaning of the word "neutral" I cannot imagine, as I have had confirmation that "neutral" in Australia means the same as it does in Britain - a slightly off-white putty colour. So the tail quill of all Clearwings should be of an off-white colour (not the cinnamon or light brown tail quill of the Cinnamon Clearwing). The tail feathers of true Yellow-wings should be off-white with yellow and/or green in them. The tail feathers of true Whitewings should be off-white with white and/or blue. In both cases the general visual effect is of a light tail. That is what has been stated many times in print, not just by myself. The tail of Yellow-wings is slightly "greenish": that of the Whitewing is slightly "bluish".

If we are eventually to have a world-wide Standard, perhaps as a compromise it could include the alternative dark blue tail seen in Britain - but the essential is that all Clearwings should have truly clear wings. That means devoid of all markings. Let there be no fudging of this essential requirement.

Readers who have seen the reproductions of photographs I took in the aviaries in Sydney and Perth, printed in April issue of The Budgerigar will see that the wings of all the Clearwings shown are pure white or yellow and the body colour is rich and up to full strength. One can also see their light-coloured tails.

Malcolm is certainly entitled to his views and beliefs on the use of Cinnamon in Australia, based on, or supported by, the opinions of a breeder and judge in North Queensland, (itself a distance from Sydney and Perth roughly equal to the width of the whole of Europe), but he should not attempt to convince readers that true Clearwings throughout Australia are "contaminated" by cinnamon. The two attempts by unnamed fanciers to breed pure Clearwings from imported eggs does not mean that all Australia’s Clearwings incorporate Cinnamon. Perhaps the eggs also came from North Queensland.

Finally I suggest that he or any other reader who cannot accept that true Clearwings exist and are free from any cinnamon adulteration should go out there and see for themselves. I write from personal observation, having good colour vision, and having photo’s to prove what I saw. Photographs are the next best thing to having the actual birds. I believe that we should all attempt to achieve that quality.