i6 4 OUTDOOR LIFE IN ENGLAND 



January, * when it was still in song.' He also 

 observed * a chiffchaff in song on February 26 

 and 27, 1887,' evidence that the bird had not 

 migrated, though the season had been very 

 severe. 



The chiffchaff derives its name from its song, 

 or, rather, from the two notes which constitute 

 what, by a stretch of imagination, may be termed 

 its song. These two notes are repeated, and are 

 better represented by the word when spelt chuff- 

 chuff, and may be readily recognized, even when 

 all the other birds are trying to sing each other 

 down. It is a little bird, being no more than 

 four inches and three-quarters in length. The 

 colour of its upper parts is a yellowish olive- 

 green, that of the under parts a yellowish- 

 white. Above the eyes there is a narrow, pale, 

 yellowish-white streak, and its feet are dark 

 brown. I have italicized the foregoing in order 

 to aid distinction between this bird and the 

 willow warbler, which it much resembles, as a 

 novice might be very easily misled, for not only 

 are they very similar in plumage, but their habits 

 are also alike. The chiffchaff is, however, the 

 smaller. 



Last summer (1894) two of these birds built 

 a nest just inside some hurdles which had been 

 placed round one of the plantations in the Uni- 

 versity parks in Oxford, at the edge of the cricket- 

 ground, where many hundreds of spectators daily 

 assembled to watch the matches, and not a few 



