LAST WEEK IN JUNE 143 
hedge-sparrow, etc., it can use its beak for 
attack and self-defence sturdily, even though 
against a bigger bird that threatens its nest. 
The young naturalist will, I think, especially 
near London and large towns, be quite as 
much impressed with the notes of the chiff- 
chaff in early spring (March) as with the 
cuckoo as a harbinger of spring. I have 
vivid recollections of it in this respect as a 
boy, but never knew, till I studied the sub- 
ject, from what bird the sounds came (for I 
never saw the bird), sounds which give one 
(especially when young life blood is coursing 
through the veins) that inexpressible ecstatic 
feeling that the finer and warmer weather of 
spring is coming again, and that birds and 
plents will once more delight the ears and 
eyes in the fields and hedgerows. Unlike the 
nightingale, the chiffchaff’s song is continued 
throughout the season, though it is not so 
insistent towards the end of the summer, when 
it leaves us in company with the host of other 
migrants. 
