60 THE WARBLERS 



Though the song of the chiffchaff is not remarkable for its musical 

 quality, it possesses nevertheless a special charm, because more than 

 any other it heralds the return of spring. The chiffchaff is the first of 

 the summer visitors to make itself heard in our woodlands some days 

 before we see the first swallow, or hear the first " cuckoo.'' Its song 

 has a borrowed charm. That of the willow-wren's owes all to its own 

 beauty. It is a little rippling warble, sweet, and somewhat plaintive ; 

 a short, soft strain that sinks to its end in notes that seem to become 

 too tender for utterance, and so pass gently into silence : 



" That strain again ; it had a dying fall " 



line aptly quoted by the American naturalist Mr. John Burroughs, 

 who during a visit to our Isles was struck by the beauty of the willow- 

 wren's song. It " has a dying fall ; no other bird song is so touching 

 in this respect. It mounts up round and full, then runs down the 

 scale, and expires upon the air in a gentle murmur." 



Before passing to the song of the wood-wren, let us note that 

 occasionally the chiffchaff has been heard to add to its own notes the 

 song of the willow-wren, either complete or in part. One bird repeated 

 the " chiff, chaff" three or four times, then suddenly broke off into the 

 willow-wren's descending scale, but always before this was completed 

 returned to the " chiff, chaff."" Similarly the willow-wren has on arrival 

 been heard singing but a few notes, " and those notes curiously like 

 the notes of the chiffchaff." As both species are no doubt descended 

 from one stock, it may be that these early or trial notes of the willow- 

 wren are ancestral in their character, and as such not unlike the chiff- 

 chaff's song, which is evidently much nearer to the primitive than its 

 congener's. But the reproduction of the willow-wren's song by the 

 chiffchaff must be explained in some other way, by mimicry, perhaps, 

 or by hybridisation. 1 



The wood-wren is easily distinguished from the chiffchaff and 

 willow-wren by its larger size and brighter coloration. But were this 



1 Zoologist, 1908, p. 190 (H. Meyrick), p. 226 (W. W. FowlerX p. 268. 



