THE ROLLER CANARY 103 
vigorously, even though it be in the correct register for 
that tour, and those same novices have looked on another 
bird as a faultless singer—a bird that, owing to the faulty 
habit of his song, or his thin and “ reedy ” tone, I would 
not have at any price. 
This because the one fault is catalogued for him to 
read, and the other, and more dangerous one, is not. 
The latter fault is penalized by every good judge, though 
it is not in the list of catalogued faults; it is penalized by 
allowing less for general effect. But the novice often 
does not know that, so is apt to be led astray. 
THE DEFINITION OF FAULTS 
What, then, is our definition of ‘‘ faults”? There 
are faults of omission as well as commission. But to 
avoid confusion, we will define “fault”? as something 
in the bird’s song which offends the ear of a good judge 
as being opposed to the ideal. 
We all know what sharp bell, sharp flutes and aufzug 
are, to take the more common of the catalogued faults. 
Let us deal with the faults which are not catalogued 
and therefore not so familiar to the eye, even though 
they be offensive to the trained ear. 
First, there is the bird which gives up eighty per 
cent. of his song period to the cheap, or low-scoring 
tours, only touching at intervals the deeper and more 
classical tours. 
Every man who has judged Rollers knows what I 
mean. You hear a bird again and again go over that 
cheap stuff, and at last, when patience is nearly ex- 
hausted, he will take a fit and drop down to something 
