380 PHYLLOPNEUSTE HIPPOLAIS. 



longer than the second, which in some specimens does not ex- 

 ceed even the eighth. The tail is rather long and scarcely 

 emarginate, the middle feathers being hardly one-twelfth shorter 

 than the enter. 



The bill is dark -brown, its margins pale toward the base ; 

 the iris brown ; the tarsi and toes dark -brown, the claws 

 lighter. The general colour of the upper parts is of a nearly 

 uniform light greenish-brown tinged with grey, the edges of 

 the feathers being only a little paler ; the quills and tail- 

 feathers of a darker brown, with paler margins. A brownish- 

 white streak passes over the eye ; the cheeks are light greyish- 

 brown ; the lower parts are dull brownish-white, with a tinge 

 of grey, and faint streaks of yellow ; the axillar feathers and 

 lower wing-coverts pale yellow. 



Length to end of tail 41 inches ; extent of wings 6 ; bill 

 along the ridge ^i, along the edge of lower mandible {'^ ; wing 

 from flexure 2j% ; tail !{§ ; tarsus j% ; hind toe /I, its 

 claw j%2 '•> second toe ^^tj, its claw ^1 ; third toe'^^l, its claw i% ; 

 fourth toe y'^, its claw i'|. 



Female. — The female cannot be distinguished from the male 

 without dissection. 



Habits. — This little bird, which has received its most fami- 

 liar name from the character of its song, the notes of which 

 may be fancifully syllabled into cliiff-cliaff^ is generally distri- 

 buted in England, although nowhere so common as the Willow- 

 wren, and has been observed in various parts of Scotland, 

 especially in the Lothians. It usually arrives in the southern 

 parts about the beginning of April, sometimes however so early 

 as the middle of March, so that, with the exception of the 

 Wheatear it is, as Montagu has observed, the earliest of our 

 migratory birds of the group of Songsters, properly so called. 

 In the neighbourhood of Edinburgh, where it is very rare, it 

 arrives from the 15th to the 25th of April, a week earlier 

 than the Willow-wren, which it resembles, not in form and 

 colours only, but also in its active and restless habits. On the 

 other hand, it remains with us to a later period than that spc- 



