ii6 RURAL BIRD LIFE. 



larger than those of the Willow Warbler, and more richly 

 coloured, being of a pure white, spotted and streaked 

 with deep reddish-brown. 



Unlike the Whitethroat and Blackcap Sylva, the 

 Wood Warbler and Chiffchaff subsist, as far as I can 

 determine, on insects alone. I seldom see the Wood 

 Wren after the first week in September, and never hear 

 his notes after the young have reached maturity. 



The second little chorister is the smallest of the 

 Willow Warblers found in Britain, and he is also dressed 

 in the most sober garb. We find them in the same 

 haunts as the Willow Warbler, and their habits, too, 

 are very similar to that bird, but they are nothing near 

 so plentiful. Early, very early sometimes, in April he 

 makes his appearance ; and such a frail little creature 

 he is too. How those feeble wings support him on his 

 long journey seems incredible, but such it is. You find 

 he seldom or never sings just upon his arrival, and 

 remains silent until the appearance of the female birds, 

 at whose advent his song commences. 



You can scarcely term the music of the Chiffchaff a 

 song — the only notes he utters are the monotonous 

 cries of chiff ch-a-ff, chijf ch-a-ff, from which he takes 

 his name. He utters them as he wanders from branch 

 to branch, and will sometimes sit motionless for half an 

 hour or more, uttering these monotonous notes. Still, 

 monotonous as they are, I always think that they 

 harmonise beautifully with the notes of other birds that 

 fill the woodlands with sweetest sounds. These harsh 

 sounds only help to increase the power and beauty of 

 more favoured songs, and in Nature's fastnesses there is 

 not a sound, be it ever so harsh and discordant, but what 

 chimes beautifully and harmoniously in with other and 

 sweeter music, and the varied surroundings. 



