8i 

 CHIFF CHAFF. 



Phylloscopus rufus (Bechstein). 



Summer visitant ; common, and generally distributed in wooded 

 localities of the central and eastern districts ; less numerous in the 

 south-west, and rare or exceptional in the north-west. 



The^earliest mention of the Chiff: Chaff as a Yorkshire 

 bird is contained in a communication to William Fothergill, 

 dated i6th August 1799, from Charles Fothergill, stating 

 that he had seen several Willow Wrens in Askham Bogs, 

 near York, and on shooting some discovered he had procured 

 all three species; the ''large," "middle," and "small" 

 Willow Wrens of Gilbert White [Wood Wren, Willow Wren, 

 and Chiff Chaff]. (Morris's Nat. 1854, iv., p. 167.) 



Thomas Allis, in 1844, wrote : 



Sylvia hippolais. Chiff Chaff Rather scarce in the neighbourhood 

 of Halifax, Huddersfield, and Hebden Bridge ; common in most 

 other parts. 



One of the very earliest of our summer migrants, the 

 Chiff Chaff arrives about the same time as the Wheatear, 

 viz. : from the middle to the end of March or the first week 

 in April, and generally appears in the southern and central 

 portions of the county a few days before it is noted in the 

 north. It has, however, been heard and seen much earlier 

 in isolated cases : on 7th March 1866, on the banks of the 

 Don as recorded by P. Inchbald ; at Barnsley on the I2th 

 of the same month in 1882 ; at Hovingham on I4th March 

 1872 ; on the same date in 1880 at Barnsley and Ripon ; 

 and at Meanwood, near Leeds, on 23rd March 1879 ^ ne 

 earliest known in Cleveland was on 28th March 1902, and in 

 the East Riding on the nth. Its time of departure is from 

 the end of September to early October, though it sometimes 

 lingers until late in the latter month. 



This species is peculiar in its distribution in Yorkshire, 

 being somewhat uncommon in the extreme south about 

 Sheffield, Wakefield, and in the Aire Valley, though a few 



VOL. I. G 



