Why do some Birds Sing? 



W HEREVER we happen to be, we are given to 

 asking ourselves or others unanswerable questions. 

 Why do birds sing? is one of these. It is not 

 enough to reply, as I know has too often been 

 done: because it is their nature to sing. If 

 nothing more rational than this can be said, then 

 let us keep silent. To admit our ignorance is 

 manly, while to assume knowledge is detestable. 

 Whether, in the present case, we are confronted 

 with an unsolvable problem or not remains to be 

 seen. 



My reply to this often-put query is a series of 

 suggestions. Nearly twenty years ago, in an 

 English magazine I suggested that " birds, like 

 mankind, sing for pleasure and talk from neces- 

 sity." Many years spent more in the company of 

 242 



