72 THE BIRDS OF KENT 



H. Micklejolin, of Ashford, Kent, in writing to the 

 Zoologist, 1901, states : " While dressing on the mornings 

 of September 28 and 29, I distinctly heard a Chiffchaff 

 {Phylloscopus rufiis) singing, my bedroom window being 

 open at the time. As I was rather sceptical about it, 

 I went out afterwards in the garden and saw the bird 

 busily feeding among the leaves oi a sycamore. I 

 watched it for about a quarter of an hour, and during 

 that short time it sang thrice, not faint-heartedly, but 

 in good voice. I heard it several times afterwards up 

 till one o'clock, when the song ceased altogether. The 

 weather was remarkably warm and the sun very bright." 

 Mr. E. J. Balston has heard it at Boxley Abbey very 

 late in the year, and took a nest of this species on May 15, 

 1879, containing six eggs ; it was placed in a butcher's 

 broom bush two feet from the ground ; he also heard this 

 bu-d on March 18, 1880. 



WILLOW-WAKBLEE. 



PJujUoscopus trocJiilus (Linnaeus). >S'.A"., i., p. 338 



(176G). 



The Willow-Warbler is a far more abundant species in 

 the spring than the Chiffchaff, and it does not make its 

 appearance as early as the latter bird. Its soft short 

 song may be heard in all the smaller woods and hedge- 

 rows throughout the county in April and May. 



The earliest seen and heard in 1902 was on April 16, 

 in Burnt Oak Wood, Orlestone ; and in 1905 the last seen 

 was on October 17, in Eoraney Marsh, below Euckinge. 

 It is common in the Orlestone district according to Mr. 

 R. T. Filmer. 



