BIRDS OF THE BUFFALO BASIN 195 



The Birds of the Buffalo Basin, Cape Province. II. 



Warblers. 



I>y The Keverexd Robert Godfrey. 



Plnjlloseopus trochiliis (L.) — Willow Wren. This 

 regular summer visitor arrives from its northern 

 breeding-quarters in November. One obtained in 11)12 

 on the 1th of the month by Mr. E. F. AVeir at Bolotwa, 

 constitutes the earliest known arrival in the Eastern Pro- 

 vince. In 1914, on November 20, I heard the simple 

 '' woi-eet -' of the Willow Wren, without, however, seeing 

 the producer. Till the birds begin to sing they generally 

 remain unnoticed, but from the beginning of February — 

 which is their normal time for tuning up — till their de- 

 parture in the last week of March^ these tiny migrants 

 from the north force themselves Into notice by their con- 

 tinual singing. They frequent the mimosa area right up 

 to the verge of the forest and also haunt trees planted 

 around, houses. On first striking up its tune, the Willow 

 Wren stutters and stammers in the effort to find its voice, 

 but within a fortnight it has acquired its full song, and 

 continues practising it so faithfully till the time of its 

 departure, that on its arrival in its northern home it 

 spontaneously breaks forth in those lowly simple strains 

 which betoken new life in the long-slumbering wood- 

 lands. 



Sometimes the Willow Wren is detected in full song in 

 the Eastern Province much earlier than the middle of 

 February. In 1917 I heard it in Umtata on January 

 16th, and Dr. Walker, of Mqanduli, informs me that the 

 AVillow Wrens were during one season heard singing 

 there throughout the summer. Year after year the Wil- 

 low Wren visits the Pirie Mission-house, sojourning 

 among the gum trees during the month of March, and 

 cheering us with memories of the northern woodlands, 



