104 THE ROLLER CANARY 
of merit. That is a faulty bird, even though he may 
Not possess one of the catalogued faults. I will compare 
with him a bird who hangs on well to his deep tours, 
only very slightly touching the cheap ones; a bird that 
pleases you and holds your ear, but occasionally brings 
one of the catalogued faults, not very badly, but sufficient 
to gain him a black mark. 
““BANG GOES SAXPENCE ” 
“Here,” says the novice, looking at his catalogue, 
“is a faulty bird—and here’s another that’s pure, never 
a penalized point!” And “bang goes saxpence,” or a 
little more, on the faultless singer. 
That novice is going wrong. The one bird, a grand 
singer, has one little fault of commission, the other a 
serious fault of omission. ‘The one does his work well 
and makes a little slip, the other does his work badly and 
makes a fed-up judge. The one may breed you and train 
you a champion, the other will give you nothing much 
better than himself, for if there is one thing above all 
others that young Rollers imitate in the tutor, it is this 
lazy habit of sticking to the cheap and easy tours. 
Let us compare now this good, deep, fine-toned 
singer with one little fault with other types of songsters 
deemed faultless because they have no fault that is in 
the catalogue of faults. 
Take the bird of thin and reedy tone, beside the 
other bird as a tin whistle to an oboe. He has a nice 
range of tours, perhaps, according to paper. He sings 
no aufzug or sharp flute or sharp bell. He passed 
without a mark against him. 
But his song is a reedy murmur, with no music in 
