THE SECRET OF THE WILLOW WREN 135 



If I am right in thinking that it is the human 

 note in the voices of some passerine birds that 

 gives a pecuUar and very great charm to their 

 songs, so that an inferior singer shall please us 

 more than one that ranks high, according to 

 the accepted standard, it remains to ask why 

 it should be so. Why, 1 mean, should the 

 mere likeness to a human tone in a httle singing- 

 bird impart so great a pleasure to the mind, 

 when the undoubtedly human-like voices of 

 many non-passerine species do not as a rule 

 affect us in the same way? As a matter of 

 fact, we find in the multitude of species that 

 resemble us in their voices a few, outside of the 

 order of singers, that do give us a pleasure 

 similar to that imparted by the willow wren, 

 swallow, and tree-pipit. Thus, among British 

 birds we have the wood-pigeon, and perhaps 

 the turtle-dove ; the green woodpecker, with 

 his laugh-Uke cry ; the cuckoo, a universal 

 favourite on account of his double fluty call ; 

 and (to those who are not inclined to be super- 

 stitious) the wood-owl, a most musical night- 

 singer ; and the curlew, with, in a less degree, 

 various other shore birds. But in a majority of 



