4 SPRING 



this little visitor distinguishes it at a glance from all the 

 winter company of tits and other small birds, not excepting 

 even the golden-crested wren. The goldcrest is smaller 

 than the chiffchaff, but is more thickset and hardy looking 

 for its size ; and the common wren is still more stalwart. 

 The chiffchaff is the very type of all the slender insect-eating 

 birds which haunt the green summer foliage, and leave us 

 before it decays. All its motions and gestures are more 



refined and delicate than those 

 of our small birds which brave 

 the winter ; and its slender bill 

 marks it out from the tribe of the 

 tits. It is greyish-olive above, 

 with a slight pale buff strip above 

 the eye, and greyish-white be- 

 neath. Later on, it is difficult 

 to distinguish by sight from the 

 willow-wren ; but the willow- 

 wren's upper plumage is dis- 

 tinctly greener. The wood-wren is greener still, and is 

 strongly tinged with yellow about the rump and throat. 

 Young willow-wrens are the yellowest birds of the whole 

 family, as the chiffchaff is the ashiest ; but they do not 

 make their appearance until the end of May. As the chiff- 

 chaff hops and flits among the clattering March boughs in 

 the north wind, it sometimes gives a mere whisper of song, 

 like the occasional low prelude to its full notes ; but the 

 promise is checked and stifled. The song of the chiffchaff 

 is unmistakable, once it is known. Monotonous, but always 

 soft and welcome, it has a see-saw alternation of a higher 

 and a lower note, which rings like a cry of 'chiff chaff — 

 chiff chaff' almost ad infinitum through the trees. Occa- 

 sionally the sequence is slightly altered, and the song takes 



GOLDCREST 



