58 THE WARBLERS 



WILLOW-WARBLER, WOOD WARBLER 

 AND CHIFFCHAFP 



[BY F. B. KIRKMAN] 



These three species are summer visitors. Long before the fall of 

 the leaf they have, with the exception of an occasional chiffchaff and 

 willow- warbler, 1 left us for their winter homes in Southern Europe or 

 Africa. All three are tiny elfin birds, with soft hues of buff, and green 

 and olive, that make them seem one with the foliage through which 

 they are wont to creep, searching every leaf, and about which they love 

 to frolic like fairies dancing in the sunbeams, glad simply to be and do. 2 

 So alike are two of them the willow-warbler and chiffchaff that they 

 are not easily distinguished even by experienced eyes. It is only when 

 they sing that uncertainty ceases. Then there can be no mistake. 3 



The song of the chiffchaff is simplicity itself; it consists of two 

 notes " chiff" and " chaff" or slight variations of these, which are partly 

 due to differences in pitch. A. H. Macpherson heard three chiffchaffs 

 in August " singing at once, all in a different pitch. No. 1 was about 

 a semitone above No. 2 ; No. 2 about a quarter of a tone above No. 3, 

 the interval being the same in all cases." 4 For Mr. W. H. Hudson 

 the two notes vary " as slightly in tone as two taps of a hammer on an 

 anvil delivered with equal force on the same spot." 5 Other good 

 observers also limit the song to two notes oft repeated. Naumann, 

 however, syllables it as follows : " Dilm, delm demm, dilm, delm, demm, 

 dolm, delm, dilm, delm, demm" . . . 6 and Bailly as "zip, zip, zap, zap, zeup, 



1 The wood-warbler and willow-warbler are usually called respectively wood-wren and 

 willow-wren. The wren proper belongs, of course, to quite a different family. 



1 The scientific name of the genus is Philloscopus, from Greek <jiv\\ov, "a leaf," and VKOKOS, 

 " one that looks at." It might be rendered " leaf searchers." 



3 For the difference between the three species see the " Classified Notes." No illustration of 

 the chiffchaff has been included in the book, because, subject to the slight differences indicated 

 in the Descriptions of the " Classified Notes," the drawing of the willow- wren suffices for practical 

 purposes. As the number of plates is limited, this unimportant omission was a gain. 



4 Quoted by W. Warde Fowler in his Year ivith the Birds (2nd edition, p. 172), who adds, 

 " As my correspondent is a violin player, as well as an ornithologist, his observations may be 

 taken as accurate." 



6 British Birds, p. 75. Vogel Mitteleuropas, ii. p. 105. 



