THE’ ROLLER CANARY 37 
Age has nothing to do with it, for birds of the same 
age who vary in their moult will vary accordingly in 
their song development, a fact which can be verified 
during any breeding season, for it will be found that 
older learners having a long moult are outstripped by 
quick moulting younger ones. With an even moult all 
round, the older birds naturally are the best developed 
in body as well as song. 
As it is mostly the custom to keep the birds in the 
freedom of the flight cages during the moult, and to 
cage them off only after completion, it follows that the 
song develops while they are already in the flights. So 
long as loud and distinct notes or passages are not 
distinguished above the twitterings of the beginner, the 
birds may be left quietly alone. 
THOSE FAULTY NOTES 
The first of the notes which strike the ear as dis- 
agreeable are the faults in the song which, later on, when 
the bird is fully developed, make it necessary to isolate 
him from the general company. Quite early we may 
hear sharp flutes, for these are the first to break in upon 
the soft warbling. After this we get a lengthy bell, 
which gradually becomes longer in delivery and harder, 
if not finally quite sharp. 
A short soft bell from which the bird descends to 
another tour is no fault, and does not jar, but if a young 
bird brings his bell frequently and at length, the tour 
almost always develops into a fault, sometimes even a 
downright bad one, and such a songster may spoil the 
~ whole school. By his unceasing ringing he urges on his 
companions, and, as he brings it out by the yard, as it 
