153 
OUR SUMMER VISITORS. 
By T. DUCKWORTH. 
(Read at Carlisle. ) 
The paper which I intend to read to you to-night, is a short 
account of a few of the birds that visit us in Spring and Summer, 
and leave again in the Autumn; noting their habits, nidification, 
etc., as taken from personal observation. I may as well state here, 
that my brother and I have kept a diary for a number of years, 
noting the arrival and departure of our Summer Visitors, and also 
the flowering of plants ; so that in this paper the dates given are 
taken from the average. 
Curr Cuarr (Sylvia hippolais ). 
The first visitor which I shall introduce to you this evening is 
the Chiff Chaff, or Lesser Pettichaps. ‘This little bird, the least 
willow wren of Bewick, or the Sy/via hippolais of English naturalists, 
is one of the first to arrive of our visitors, and I like well to hear 
its cheerful note. I have heard it as early as the 26th of March, 
but as a general rule, from the 6th to the roth of April, and 
it leaves us about the 28th of September. Its monotonous song of 
chiff chaff, chaff chiff, may be heard in our woodlands, groves, and 
plantations : 
‘* Chiff chaff, chivey chavey, 
On the ear it comes again ; 
Faint and low, yet soft and pleasant, 
Is the gentle strain.” 
