CHAPTER XIX 

 THE ROLLER OR SONG CANARY 



The Sweetest of all Singers. 



Ever great favourites with the British public who love a 

 bird for its song and as a pet, the Roller has not, until the 

 last twenty years, captured the imagination of those of us 

 who like to indulge in the hobby of breeding canaries. 

 Having once captured the affections of English breeders 

 the Roller made rapid progress and at nearly all our im- 

 portant shows classes are now provided for them. It is 

 strange how enthralUng is competition to the Britisher. 

 The breeding of singing canaries, as such, had little 

 attraction, but, when singing contests began to be pro- 

 moted as they are on the Continent, then at once the 

 Rollers act as a magnet and draw many unto themselves. 



We have in England, now, quite a large number of 

 Roller Clubs, and as a result the importation of birds 

 from Germany is not nearly so large as it used to be. 

 Just before the Great War it was calculated that at least 

 100,000 German canaries were imported into this country 

 annually at an average price of twelve to fifteen shillings 

 each. 



For a long time after they became popular breeders 

 talked of them as Hartz Mountain Rollers, but since the 

 War one seldom hears them spoken of by that title, nor 

 by the other they were known by, German Canaries. The 

 latter was more correct than the former, because for many 

 years the Hartz Mountain district had ceased to be 

 the great breeding centre it used to be. Although we now 

 speak of them as Roller canaries, our breeders, many of 

 them, still talk of the German strains. This will die out in 

 time, but I think that even now Englishmen have bred 

 Rollers long enough for the strains to be known by 

 English names rather than by German. To-day many 



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