THE SECRET OF THE WILLOW WREN 121 



not invariably please us so well as some that are 

 considered inferior. 



The song of the willow wren has been called 

 singular and unique among our birds ; and Mr 

 Warde Fowler, who has best described it, says 

 that it forms an almost perfect cadence, and adds, 

 " by which I mean that it descends gradually, 

 not, of course, on the notes of our musical scale, 

 by which no birds in their natural state would 

 deign to be fettered, but through fractions of one 

 or perhaps two of our tones, and without return- 

 ing upward at the end." Now, this arrangement 

 of its notes, although very rare and beautiful, does 

 not give the little song its highest aesthetic value. 

 The secret of the charm, I imagine, is traceable 

 to the fact that there is distinctly something human- 

 like in the quality of the voice, its timbre. Many 

 years ago an observer of wild birds and listener 

 to their songs came to this country, and walking 

 one day in a London suburb he heard a small bird 

 singing among the trees. The trees were in an 

 enclosure and he could not see the bird, but there 

 would, he thought, be no difficulty in ascertaining 

 the species, since it would only be necessary to 

 describe its peculiar little song to his friends and 

 they would tell him. Accordingly, on his return 



