IQO THE BIRDS OF THE BRITISH ISLES. 



caught on the wing. It is said that soft fruit is eaten, but I 

 have not seen this myself. In mild winters numbers remain in 

 the south-west of England and in Ireland, and occasionally- 

 further north ; in the winter of 19 12-13, when many were 

 reported, I watched a bird feeding in an old Devon orchard, 

 and in February two or three were reported in song in the 

 north of England. When the nesting site is selected the male 

 Chiffchaff jealously guards it, driving away other birds larger 

 and more powerful than itself :. I have seen it attack and defeat 

 a Hedge-Sparrow. 



Normally the domed nest is above the ground, but the height 

 %'aries from a few inches to many feet ; it is built in herbage, 

 bushes, heaps of hedge cuttings, the litter which collects on the 

 branches of conifers, in evergreens or trees. Dead leaves, moss 

 and grass are used, and the lining is of rootlets, grass and a 

 profusion of feathers ; in one nest, so far as I could see, all 

 were white. The five to seven eggs, laid early in May, are 

 smaller than those of the Willow-Wren, and are white thinly 

 spotted with purple or dark brown (Plate 65). Second broods 

 are recorded, but one appears to be normal. The cock is said 

 neither to build nor incubate, but he is assiduous in feeding the 

 sitting hen. 



The olive-green upper parts, yellowish on the rump, and 

 white under parts tinged grey on the breast and suffused with 

 yellow, closely resemble the plumage of the Willow-Wren. 

 The superciHary stripe is whitish and short ; the axillaries 

 are yellow. There are two moults, that in spring being often 

 incomplete, but the autumn dress varies little from that of 

 spring. The bill and irides are brown, the legs so dark as to 

 look black in the field. In the young the upper parts are 

 browner, the under more yellow, and the breast is duller. In 

 the hand the birds can be distinguished by the wing formula, 

 apart from the emargination of the sixth primary ; the second 

 primary is longer than the sixth ; in the Willow-Wren it is 



