THE ROLLER CANARY 19 
from healthy birds is black, with tips of white, which 
denote the passage of uric acid, and which is the natural 
way of elimination of this acid from the birds. Signs 
of poor condition are feathers carried loosely, birds 
inactive, sitting at the end of the perches with feathers 
puffed out like a ball. Lack of song in the male birds, 
and no calling from the hens. Looseness in the excreta, 
and the same being of a different colour. Birds with an 
unusually large appetite for soft food, and eating very 
little seed. The causes of loss of condition are of course 
numerous, but the principal ones are lack of fresh air, 
fluctuating temperatures, draughts, insufficient exercise. 
MAKING A MATCH 
There are some who talk of introducing the birds 
gradually by setting the cock in a cage near to his wife 
that is to be, or in one side of a double compartment 
cage ; others never bother, but when the birds are ready 
put the cock straightway into the cage of the hen. This 
is important. Hens breed far better in cages to which 
they have become accustomed than in strange cages. 
Three or four days after the birds have been introduced 
to each other, the nest pan and nesting material may be 
fixed. The pan at the back, and the nesting material 
to the wires in front. There are quite a number of 
different materials which can be used for nesting. With 
the porcelain or clay nest-pan, a felt lining is always used, 
clean dry moss, manilla rope cut into short lengths, and 
well teazled out. Medicated horse or cow hair, deer hair, 
clean dry grass, are all suitable materials. Cotton waste 
should not be used, as it packs down tight, and prevents 
B* 
