21 APRIL 1950, Page 14

Bird-Song

Very many bird-songs (as the B.B.C. reminds us weekly). have been recorded ; and the records doubtless should help beginners to learn songs. Yet how utterly the records fail to produce the charm, which belongs in very large measure to the scene. The songs give such indescribable pleasure only because our sense of hearing is tuned to the reception by the satisfaction of the other senses. The gentle cadence of the willow warbler, above other, notes, needs the hawthorn spray and the westerly breeze.