Some thoughts on the Buttercup Yellow

Ken Gray

Abstracted from an article in the Rare Variety and Colour Budgerigar Society Newsletter Winter 1994

The subject of the Yellows has been a long-running problem for our Society. There has been quite a lot of discussion within the Society on the regrettable fact that what are now known by the BS as Suffused Yellows, have been taking awards originally intended for the true Light, Dark, or Olive Yellows. The Light version is, or was generally known as the Buttercup Yellow, the term becoming extended to cover the Dark and Olive versions. It is a fact that Suffused Yellows, and their equivalent Suffused Whites, are by no means rare - all Clearwing enthusiasts breed a number of them each year, as most of the largest Clearwings are split for the Dilute mutation.

The Light Yellow has an entry of its own in the BS Colour Standards booklet, completely separate from the Suffused Yellow. It is for a bird of a bright buttercup yellow body colour, carrying the very faintest of markings with a well-defined buttercup yellow edge, and with silvery-white cheek patches. The primary wing and tail feathers each "darker in proportion". The markings on the body of all three varieties should be only "very faintly discernible".

I have not seen a Buttercup Yellow "in the flesh" or more correctly "in the feather" for many years. John Scobie, the well known Australian author, showed some in his photographic slide presentation at the 1990 BS Convention. My memories of the variety are really pre-war, from when my brothers and I bred them they, at that time, being quite a common variety. According to Cyril Rogers, classes at shows often equalled in numbers those of the Light Green, the very best of examples even taking Best in Show. R.J. Watts of Cambridge was the name almost synonymous with the variety.

It was suggested at our last seminar by one member that Light Yellows, as distinct from the Suffused Yellows, had never really existed and that age was playing tricks with people's memories! That bizarre opinion was, presumably, because he had never seen one, or possibly he wanted to "stir things up a bit".

I have long held the belief that the Light Yellow cannot have been created from the Suffused Yellow - the Dilute - without some secondary mutation or modifying factor having occurred or been incorporated. I cannot see how the light blue to light violet cheek patch and distinct body markings of the Suffused Yellow can be lightened to such an extent as to give the white cheek patch and faint markings, but still be on the bright buttercup yellow ground, without some secondary modifier -; very likely an extremely recessive one - being present (Re-reading a lot of the late Cyril Rogers' writings, I see that in one instance he does, himself make reference to that possibility).

That element seems to have been lost in this country. It is, in my opinion, probably the same element that has been lost in most of the Clearwings in the British Isles - indeed, possibly also in the rest of Europe. Find it, save it resurrect it, and we may be able to create good Buttercup Yellows once again - and good Yellow-wings and Whitewings. Then outcross to big Dilutes to improve substance and it will very likely be lost again, just as it was when such outcrosses were used to improve substance and type in Clearwings We will have gone full circle.

Are there any Light, Dark or Olive Yellows existing in this country? I have not seen any for many years. I may annoy some members, but here goes; if after enquiry we find there are none actually existing in this country, is the attempt to re-create them really worth persevering with? If it is only to get bright-coloured bird as near as possible devoid of all markings that we are seeking; the answer is, that there are other existing varieties that already give us just that. If there are specimens of the variety still existing, we should by all means try to save and perpetuate them in the same way as we are doing with the Slate, but try to to re-create the variety will, I feel, be "flogging a dead horse".

The Buttercup Yellow went into decline when the Lutino appeared. That is an acknowledged fact. Since then the Dark-eyed Clear Yellow has been created, itself struggling to a lesser degree, for possibly the same reason. In recent years the Double-factor Spangle has appeared. All three give, in general terms, what we are seeking in the Light Yellow. Can the Fancy really support or cope with four similar varieties? The Dominant and/or Sex-linked varieties will almost certainly be the ones to prevail. They are so much easier to produce in type and substance.

Two previous specialist clubs have attempted to stop the decline in the popularity of the Buttercup Yellow. The first was the Yellow Budgerigar Club in 1961. That struggled on for some years followed by the Southern Yellow Budgerigar Club formed in 1972. That also failed to maintain lts initial support. Our Society is different in that we have a number of rare varieties with which to concern ourselves and various members concentrate on one or more of the various varieties within our criteria.

If we did decide that we can do no more for the Buttercup Yellow, (except possibly getting sone from Australia if still existent there) then our Society would logically no longer regard the '"Any variety Normal or Opaline" class at the Specialist and Rare Variety Show at Ryton as of direct concern. The class, and the similar one for whites, could possibly be placed under Clearwing Budgerigar Breeders Association control. Opaline Clearwings, Cinnamon Clearwings and possibly, Rainbows, could logically go the same way. Perhaps all this could happen under a general tidying up of our criteria and the rather unfair overloading of the "Rares"section of the Ryton show classification. That is really a separate subject and one on which I, like many others, also have strong feelings.

Other pages in this section:

The White - A Challenge
Some Thoughts on the Buttercup Yellow
Dilutes

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