16 THE ROLLER CANARY 
no harm is done, but when birds are not used to strange 
voices at ordinary times they should not be allowed to 
be disturbed during the breeding season. 
NEVER BREED LATE 
It is a great temptation when one has had a bad 
breeding season to take “‘just one more nest,” so as to 
level things up. More often than not it levels them 
down. The early bad luck has possibly been due to 
the fact that one or other of the parent birds has not 
been in first-class condition, and to take a further nest 
of eggs from them would mean a further tax on an 
enfeebled and delicate body. Good, or bad, though the 
season be—never breed late. 
Many of the troubles which afflict the Canary breeder 
are due to late breeding. Late-bred birds never moult 
properly, the season is against them, and late breeding 
retards the moult of the old birds. A slow moult, 
or a retarded moult, is never a healthy moult, and the 
evil consequences of such are sure to be manifest in the 
next breeding season. It means impaired health and 
vitality in the stock. 
THE BREEDING CAGES 
There is a great difference in the ways in which 
fanciers conduct their breeding operations. Some use 
small flights into which they turn six or eight hens and a 
couple of cocks, others run two or three hens with one 
cock in a large flight cage, and others run two hens with 
a cock in what are known as double-compartment 
breeding cages, whilst others, whether they run a cock 
