98 The Irish Naturalist. Sept., 



regard to Garden Warbler and Grasshopper Warbler, both of 

 which practically give up singing when the mate begins to 

 sit. The latter bird sings again in July previous to the 

 second brood. And my experience goes to show that those 

 Garden Warblers heard in full song after, say, the 25th 

 May, are yet mateless, as further described by me in above 

 article. In the case of the Grasshopper Warbler both parents 

 feed the young ; I cannot say about the others. 



I had half a dozen Chiffchaff nests near my house, of 

 which I had three under special observation — A, B, C, the 

 first arrival being the 7th April ; three had arrived by the 

 i8th, and by then they had each settled down to a special 

 site. Like many other birds, each has its own domain 

 during the period of the first brood (I have seen one male 

 chase his neighbour off), but late on in the season I could 

 not be sure of the divisions being strictly adhered to. No 

 mate appeared with any male till the 22nd April, exempli- 

 f\dng the known fact of the females coming later than the 

 old males. Even on the 5th May many males in the county 

 appeared to have no mates. A, B, C began building, began 

 laying and hatched out, all on the same dates, namely, 23rd 

 April, 4th ]\Iay, 25th May. Upon the arrival of a mate and 

 during the building of the nest I found A, B, C nearly silent and 

 near the nest, but by the time the female commenced sitting 

 the song was in full swing again. Anew male(D) arrived on the 

 1st ]\lay — very noisy. On the 7th he became silent, and I 

 found him also with a mate, and he sang very little for some 

 time, thus agreeing with A, B, C. But during all the rest 

 of the breeding period, on till se ond broods w^ere started or 

 after, I could not detect any distinct alteration in the song 

 of any of these males, except for a few days slackening when 

 the young first left the nest. Now it seems easy here to 

 refer to the male of a certain nest, but in practice I found it 

 far different. And this was an interesting point. In past 

 years the fact of hearing many Chiffchaffs without being 

 able to detect a female at hand, naturally led me to think 

 tliey might be lonely males. I now find that the males' 

 favourite singing area or perches may be far away 

 from the nest, and may be seldom near it except in 

 late evening and with a much lower song. For example. 



