22 FEBRUARY 1946, Page 16

Winterers The general openness of the winter, which has saved

the Continent from disaster, has been a godsend to the birds. The most vulnerable and sensitive perhaps are the smallest, the long-tailed tits, or bottle-tits, so called most unkindly from the shape of their lovely nests. They are to be seen in rare numbers. Some observers, I notice, are reviving the assertion that they are unique in having no song. What, then, is -a song? These tits, especially when going about in family parties in autumn, make happy little whispered noises, which serve for song, at least in the ears of those who do not hold that song is only a war-cry or an amatory lyric. It is perhaps possible that the note, like the bat's cry, is too high for most human ears.