" Gilbert White,’ said Merlyn, ‘remarks, or will remark, however you like to put it, that ‘the language of birds is very ancient, and, like other ancient modes of speech, little is said, but much is intended.’ He also says somewhere that ‘the rooks, in the breeding season, attempt sometimes, in the gaiety of their hearts, to sing – but with no great success. "

― T.H. White , The Once and Future King (The Once and Future King, #1-4)