VOL. vii.l NOTES. 297 



not at all shy, it provided numerous opportunities for a 

 close and thoroughly satisfactorj- inspection. I myself 

 ^^-atched it on eiglit different occasions, once or twice for 

 over an hour, and the bird was also seen and identified 

 by Miss E. L. Turner, Mrs. Beecheno of Southborough, 

 \\-]io watched it daily for some time, Mr. H. M. Wallls 

 and Mr. J. B. Crosfield. It inliabited the valley of a small 

 stream near the end of a wood — a very sheltered region 

 with plenty of broom and bracken and hawthorn, in which 

 this bird, several Goldcrests, and a Firecrest seemed to 

 find abundance of food. I watched the bird under a 

 variety of conditions — in brilliant sunshine, under iiloomy 

 skies, in the middle of the claj^ late in the afternoon, 

 against the sk}', agamst a ver}^ dark broom-bush, and 

 hoj^ping by the stream. Under aU these conditions the 

 ^^"hite of the under-parts was so marked as to leave not the 

 smallest doubt m the minds of any of those who saw it, 

 tliat the bird could onty be Ph. c. tristis. In addition to 

 this, I was able on several occasions to note its very dark 

 legs, though I doubt ^^'hether I ever saw it restmg for a 

 second. The plumage of the u]Dper-parts showed no trace 

 of green, and the oi\\y jqWo^x visible was the lemon-yellow 

 edge of the wing. 



Sometimes the bkd was practically silent, but at other 

 times it frequently uttered a very plaintive call-note, some- 

 times fairly loud, which a]:)peared to be most like the 

 shrill call of a Hedge-Sparrow or the single note of a Coal- 

 Tit, and quite distinct from that of Ph. c. coUybita. 

 This precisely agrees with the description of the note 

 quoted by Mr. Dresser from Mr. W. E. Brooks, who 

 observed this bird m India m whiter. I had not discovered 

 this account of the winter-note when I mentioned this 

 bird at the meetmg of the British Ornithologists' Club on 

 December 10th : at that time I had only read the accounts 

 of those who have observed the bird in the breedmg- 

 season, when its notes appear to be different from m winter. 

 This seems to me a most convincing proof of the bird's 

 identity. Even apart from the note, the colour of Ph. 

 c. tristis, as may be seen from the series in the Natural 

 History Museum, is so different in every case from that 

 of Ph. c. coUybita and Ph. c. abietinus, that there caimot, 

 in Miss Turner's opinion and my own, be any possibility 

 of confusion. And since we sometimes Avatched this bird 

 Avithin two j^ards, I hardly see that any doubt can exist. 



It is perhaps well to add that I have observed the common 

 Chiffchaff {Ph. c. coUybita) in winter : three years ago I 



