Dark Budgerigar Mutation - Historical Notes

Historical Notes

The Dark mutation is common in the wild as Dark Green budgerigars have been observed in wild flocks on several occasions. One of the earliest to be seen was one captured during an expedition to Australia and exhibited in a London museum in 1847 . But the Dark mutation was not seen in the domesticated budgerigar until the summer of 1915 when a Dark Green was observed by Monsieur A Blanchard in his aviaries in Toulouse . At the time, Toulouse was the main commercial centre for budgerigar distribution in Europe, handling thousands of imported and aviary-bred birds each year. The origins of this first Dark Green are not known. Dark Greens were known initially as Laurel Greens, a name which remained popular throughout the 1920s.

Mon. Blanchard produced the first Olives from a pair of Dark Greens in the autumn of 1916, and J D Hamlyn imported some of the early Olives to England from France in 1918.

The first Cobalts were bred by Mon. Blanchard in 1920, and by George F Hedges in 1923 while he was the aviary attendant for Madame Lecallier in France. These were initially called Powder Blues. Some of these latter Cobalts were purchased by Mrs Dalton Burgess and imported to England. She exhibited one (as a Royal Blue) in February 1924 at the Crystal Palace and later that year bred the first Mauves from them. She called the Mauves French Greys in nest feather, and when adult they were known as Lilacs or Lavenders.

The blue forms of the Dark mutation were far more popular than the Greens and commanded fantastic prices in the mid-twenties. In February 1927 Mauves and Cobalts were sold for £175 a pair, but by 1931 the price was down to £2 a pair, as more and more were quickly bred.