THE GERMAN OR ROLLER CANARY 



339 



Alter the team has been thus carefully gone 

 over it is removed to the hall, and another 

 breeder's team is brought into the room to 

 tnidergo the same test. Possibly not a bird 

 from this team will be selected, or they 

 may be put back for later hearing, to see 

 if there are any improvements. Thus all 

 the teams are gone through, and awards 

 given to the individual jierformers, accord- 

 ing to merit, as well as team prizes for the 

 excellence of a team. 



During a conversation with that well- 

 known authority, the late Mr. Albert 

 Rettich, he pointed out to us that there is a 

 difference between the awarding of prizes 

 in Germany and England. Here teams are 

 not entered, and first, second, and third 

 prizes mark the comparative merits of 

 particular birds at individual shows, but 

 the same awards in Germany would in- 

 dicate respective degrees of proficiency in 

 song. At one of their competitions there 

 may be several first, second, and third 

 jjrize birds in the same class, owing to their 

 method of analysing the merits of the 

 different tours ; but otherwise the judging 

 is the same. It is not noise that a com- 

 jietent judge desires, but depth, purity, 

 sweetness, and variation, with good deliver- 

 ance. An expert judge can tell the song 

 of a bird by the movements of its bill. 



About forty years ago in the best Rollers 

 not only were good tours, deej) sonorous 

 rolls, and liquid bubbles, expected, but a 

 wide variety of song and qiuility, delivered 

 with the greatest sweetness, precision, and 

 modulation of voice. There can be little 

 doubt but that the German breeders' 

 indifference to colour and other properties 

 natural in fancy Canaries has assisted them 

 immensel}^ in the development of their 

 birds" vocal organs, and in their cajiacity 

 for marvellous endurance in song. These 

 are the points cidtivated by careful breed- 

 ing ; but the song is taught, and to retain 

 it each generation must in tiu'n be taught, 

 and hence it is next to impossible to import 

 the finest songsters from Germany except 

 at fabulous prices. They are kept as 

 schoolmasters for the young cocks of each 

 season's breeding. 



A few years ago there was great lack of 

 variety in the song of even the best birds 

 imported into England ; for, although sweet, 

 it was simply a repetition of three or four 

 rolls, with no variation whatever, possibly 

 owing to the birds being exported before 

 their training was complete. A marked 

 improvement in many of the birds is, how- 

 ever, now noticeable, there being much 

 more variety and quality in the song. 



This bird is called by various titles, such 



'' I / 





Points in 

 Breeding. 



I'l I 



ROLLER CANARY 

 In the act of executing a long soft roll. 



as " St. Andreasberg," " Hartz Mountain," 

 " Trute,"' or " Seifert " Rollers, etc. ; the 

 names being used to indicate the district or 

 strain from which the birds come. 



In breeding Rollers we have heard of 

 good results with birds turned loose into 

 a room as if in an aviary ; 

 letting there be a cock to, 

 say, every four hens. The 

 Germans, too, use a large wire flight cage 

 with six, eight, or ten nest boxes arranged 

 round it, and six, eight, or ten hens, and 

 three cocks are turned into it ; but we have 

 not heard of much success following this 

 arrangement in this country. The majority 

 of British Roller breeders use the ordinary 

 box-breeding cage, and breed the birds in 

 pairs or run one cock with two hens, letting 

 him put one to nest and then the other, as 

 is the custom with other varieties. The 

 breeder, in selecting his pairs or groups for 

 breeding high-class songsters, devotes his 



