8 SUMMER VISITORS TO THE NEIGHBOURHOOP. 



go in the opposite direction, and flew round ns if we stood 

 in their way. There was no doubt that we were watching a 

 large army of chiifchaffs. Very soon the Leigh Woods and 

 Downs were full of these little birds, and each spot w^iere 

 one had sung the year before seemed to be occupied again. 

 How is it that these small creatures, after making two such 

 enormous journeys, yet manage to arrive with such regu- 

 larity often in the exact spot at which they spent the pre- 

 vious summer P 



There are two near relations of the chiffchaff which arrive 

 rather later, but it is interesting to compare the three. 

 These two cousins of the chiff chaff are the willow wren and 

 wood wren ; each of the three is called Fhylloscopus, because 

 they search the leaves for their food. In many respects 

 they are much alike, and so long as they are silent it is 

 almost impossible to distinguish between the chiffchaff and 

 willow wren when they are flitting about the trees before 

 you. But there is no such difficulty when they are singing, 

 for the jerky two notes uttered almost incessantly by the 

 chiffchaff from the moment of his arrival are not at all like 

 the sweet little song of the willow wren. Their call notes 

 are more alike, but a little practice soon enables one to 

 distinguish between them. 



Each builds a small, oval-shaped nest, domed, wdth the 

 entrance at the side ; but while the willow wren's is on the 

 ground, the chiffchaff's is generally a little above it. A 

 favourite site for the chiffchaff's ^nest is the edge of a 

 straggling bramble bush, where it can be well hidden by the 

 tall grasses which grow round it. 



But my favourite of the three is the wood wren, abun- 

 dant in the Leigh Woods, especially Nightingale Valley, but 

 not on the Downs. He is rather larger than his cousins, 

 and is yellower on the upper parts, whiter on the under. 



