At six and three-quarter inches, the Yorkshire Canary has the greatest length of any of the varieties commonly shown today; the result of many generations of selecting for slimness and length. Named for the county of its origin, the 'Yorkie' was described as 'The Guardsman' because of its rigid stance, it was claimed that a Yorkshire should: "slip through a man's wedding ring".
 Clear Yellow, Clear Buff, Ticked Yellow, Cinnamon Mark Yellow Painted by A.F.Lydon about 1900 |
W. E. Brooks assessed the origins of the variety in the 1840s, and noted that early prints of birds at the Crystal Palace Exhibition show a bird of "sharp headed, hoopy appearance, which drooped over the perch instead of standing erect"; this would support the theory that the Yorkshire descended from the Dutch or Belgian posture canaries.
The Yorkshire Canary Club, formed in 1894, approved an ideal type for the variety together with a scale of points for the various attributes of the bird. The target length was set at 6.75 inches and this was confirmed when the model was updated in 1946.
