THE SECRET OF THE WILLOW WREN 129 



attention to the singing of birds ; but there are 

 two criticisms to be made on it. One is that the 

 resemblance of a bird's song to a human voice 

 when speaking is confined to some or to a few 

 species ; the second is that it is a mistake to 

 think, as Mr. Fowler appears to do, that the 

 resemblance is wholly or mainly due to the fact 

 that the bird's voice is free when singing — that, 

 like the human voice in talking, it is not tied to 

 tones and semitones. For instance, we note this 

 peculiarity in the willow wren, but not in, say, 

 the wren and chaffinch, although the songs of 

 these two are just as free, just as independent of 

 regular intervals as our voices when speaking 

 and laughing. The resemblance in a bird's song 

 to human speech is entirely due to the human - 

 hke quahty in the voice ; for we find that other 

 songsters — notably the swallow — have a charm 

 similar to that of the willow wren, although the 

 notes of the former bird are differently arranged, 

 and do not form anything like a cadence. Again, 

 take the case of the blackbird. We are ac- 

 customed to describe the blackbird's voice as flute- 

 like, and the flute is one of the instruments which 

 most nearly resemble the human voice. Now, 



K 



