70 THE BIRDS OF KENT 



difference in the dates of those first heard and seen in 

 the spring, and no doubt our Chiffchaff can endure a 

 great amount of cold, Hke his northern ally, PJiijUoscopus 

 borealis. 



Our Chiffchaff comes under the name of Less Petty- 

 chaps in Boys' Birds of Sandwich, 1792. 



The Kev. J. Pemberton Bartlett states, in his Ornith- 

 ology of Kent, 1844, that " these birds arrive about the 

 end of March and depart early in October." 



The following are interesting notes by Mr. M. Hutchin- 

 son, in his observations on the arrival of summer birds 

 at Shooter's Hill, in Kent: "The Chiffchaff was the 

 first of the absentees whose return I noticed on April 3 

 (1844) ; his peculiar and distinct note loudly proclaimed 

 the advent of spring and readily told me of his where- 

 abouts. The following year, 1845, on April 2, I espied 

 a little bird flitting about from tree to tree, and soon 

 heard the peculiar note of the Chiffchaff, the pioneer of 

 the weather. He had, however, but little to say, for he 

 seemed to think, with me, that chewing condensed 

 Thames fog on the summit of Shooter's Hill at break of 

 day was no treat. Extremes met : the bitter winter of 

 1844-45 was succeeded by the mildest winter known. 

 Throughout Europe the winter was so open that there 

 may be said to have been no winter in 1845-6. In the 

 spring of 1846 I was therefore early on the look-out for the 

 return of my musical friends. Hearing that the Chiffchaff' 

 had been seen on February 27, I diligently, but ineffect- 

 ually, sought it till March 11, when my old acquaintance, 

 on the top of Shooter's Hill, announced his arrival as the 

 harbinger of a forward spring. Some woodmen had 

 heard one lower down in the woods about a fortnight 

 earlier. On the 12th I observed three Chiffchaffs, and 



