THE SECRET OF THE WILLOW WREN 127 



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 

 quahty 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. Accord- 

 ingly, on his return to the house he proceeded 

 to describe the song and ask the name of the 

 singer. No one could tell him, and much to 

 his surprise, his account of the melody was 

 received with smiles of amusement and in- 

 credulity. He described it as a song that was 

 Uke a wonderfully bright and delicate human 

 ' voice talking or laughingly saying something 

 rather than singing. It was not until some 

 time afterwards that the stranger in a strange 

 land discovered that his little talker and laugher 



