CHAPTER IX 
TRAINING ROLLERS FOR COMPETITIONS 
HE training of the Roller Canary is, of course, a 
ae most interesting process, and occupies about three 
months; breeders are not all alike in the time they 
take to train their birds. One will cage off early from 
the flights, while another will delay the operation; or it 
may be that the birds are backward either by nature or 
by reason of the lack of continual, steady tuition through 
the available schoolmaster going off song in the moult, 
and no substitutes being forthcoming for some time. 
It goes without saying that the longer a young bird 
can be kept in the flight the better chances he has of 
coming safely through his first moult; of expanding his 
frame, and becoming a robust youngster. 
The tutor is kept near the flight in a cage and song- 
box by himself. If a youngster becomes quarrelsome, or if 
he develops sharp or harsh notes or frequent high calls, 
he should be taken away. To minimize these troubles, 
or to prevent them, it will be found effective if the flight 
is shaded, either by a curtain or by darkening the room. 
Some cage off the cocks almost as soon as the sexes 
are discovered; others cage them off as soon as they 
show livelier attempts at song. The birds are put into 
small wire cages, and the cages are placed in boxes or 
cabinets provided with doors. These cabinets almost 
exclude the light, some entirely so, and the birds are 
ranged so that the tutor is in the centre. 
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