



CHIFFCHAFF 



FIRST COMERS 



To every bird-lover the day when he sees or hears the first 

 summer visitor makes a great landmark in the year. On 

 some soft morning of late March, when the south-west wind 

 seems to suck a new smell of growth from the plastic clods, 

 the chiming cry of the chiffchaff comes once more from the 

 thorn-brake or the hazel-wood, or the wheatear is seen 

 flicking over the banks on the common ; and then a newer 

 and gladder era seems once more to open, and we cast off 

 the old thoughts and mental habits of the winter season. 

 ' Behold, the winter is past, the rains are over and gone.' 

 Now is the time of the singing of birds ; and the cry of the 

 first chiffchaff from overseas is the true voice of spring 

 returning to our northern islands. The voice of the turtle, 

 which stands as the type of spring in Solomon's Song, is 

 heard later with us than in Palestine ; in England it is a 

 murmur of later May, and of the elder-groves in midsummer 

 blossom. 



The two earliest summer visitors haunt very different 

 ground, and each brings the signal of spring to spots which 

 the other passes by. Chiffchaffs like well-grown gardens, 

 woods with high timber and rich foliage, and a measure of 

 shelter and softness. They are less hardy in the choice of a 

 nesting-site than the willow-wren, and cling more habitually 



