34 THE ROLLER CANARY 
from several different strains will have a poor percentage 
of good birds. Further, it takes longer to separate 
the good from the bad, and in the end he will only have 
high ones left after all his trouble. 
If a breeder is possessed of plenty of room, I advise 
him to separate his young cocks into different rooms, 
according to their quality. For this purpose you must 
have several tutors at your disposal, and you must place 
the young cocks with the old bird which they follow 
the nearest in song. 
A USEFUL EXPERIMENT 
This experiment you can also practice with a few 
young cocks if you want to introduce a tour or a new 
style of song. This applies only to a man with plenty 
of young cocks, but it is worth trying, and, if you are 
lucky to get only one good young cock, it pays you for 
your extra trouble. 
As your birds progress in song, you must begin hand- 
ling them, which means you have to take several of 
them into another room and put an old one among 
them. He will start the concert, and by this you will 
get them to sing anywhere and in strange surroundings, 
which will be to your good when they are judged 
later on. 
It is wise to take a couple of young cocks into another 
room, quite away from the others. When they sing, you 
will think you have another bird to listen to; it makes 
such a lot of difference to sit in a quiet room and have 
the birds before you. The sound has a quite different 
effect; also you can hear them better, and it is another 
big step towards making them free songsters. 
