THE ROLLER CANARY 61 
correctly assert that the nestlings, even, take up the song 
of the tutor. It is well known that the father is the best 
tutor, a fact in favour of my point, for the birds in time 
will bring out their song, an inherited one. 
MATERNAL INFLUENCE ON SONG 
There is another example of song inheritance— 
namely, in the case of a hen of a strain representing a 
variation from the breeder’s style of song being crossed 
with his breeding cocks. The hen transmits, in part or 
in entirety, the new style of song, but she cannot teach 
the cocks to sing, so the breeder puts them under a good 
tutor, maybe their own father. It will then be found that 
they have not only learnt what their tutor has taught 
them, but also the pedigree tours of the mother, although 
they have never heard them. 
If the mother be of very fine strain, and the young 
cocks develop the fine tours inherent in her, in the absence 
of any performance thereof on the part of the tutor, it will 
be evident to the breeder that the birds need no special 
tutor. These facts have also been further verified in the 
case of a breeder giving to another breeder eggs from a 
nest in exchange for a nest of his own, the respective 
strains being foreign to each other. 
Now, if the youngsters hatched in the strange room 
come from a good Bass or Schockel strain, tours not in 
the repertoire of the birds in this new home, they will 
nevertheless, when autumn comes, bring out their Bass 
and Schockel, even though they have had no tutor to 
help them. It is thus shown that on the face of things 
no tutor is necessary, yet from what follows it will be 
