CHIFFCHAFF 75 



and frailty, is the first of the migratory warblers to make its appear- 

 ance on our coasts. Shortly after the middle of March, and even 

 earlier in some years, the well-remembered, familiar sound, full of 

 promise of the beautiful budding season, begins to be heard here 

 and there in the more sheltered and sunny spots in woods and 

 copses, and by the first week in April it is one of the most familiar 

 sounds in the country. It is not, however, so general as the strain 

 of the willow- wren, this species being more local in its distribution. 



It is this early appearance of the chiffchaff, coming ' before the 

 swallow dares,' that endears it to the lover of Nature and of bird life. 

 Mr. Warde Fowler, in his ' Year with the Birds,' has well expressed 

 the feeling which so many have for this small warbler. ' No one,' 

 he says, * who hails the approach of spring as the real beginning of 

 a new life for men and plants and animals, can fail to be grateful to 

 this little brown bird for putting on it the stamp and sanction of his 

 clear, resonant voice. We grow tired of his two notes he never gets 

 beyond two for he sings almost the whole summer through ; . . . 

 but not even the first twitter of the swallow, or the earliest song of 

 the nightingale, has the same hopeful story to tell me as this delicate 

 traveller who dares the east wind and the frost.' 



The two notes, which vary as slightly in tone as two taps of a 

 hammer on an anvil delivered with equal force on the same spot, 

 are emitted with great vigour and spirit, as if the little creature's 

 whole heart was in the performance, and repeated several times 

 without a pause. This is the whole song, and, when not engaged 

 in uttering it, the singer is incessantly moving about in pursuit of 

 small insects and their larvae, now searching for them in the small 

 twigs and buds, after the manner of the titmice, and at times 

 capturing them on the wing. Meanwhile the song is repeated at 

 frequent intervals from morning until dark. It is not suspended, 

 as in the case of most of the warblers, after the young have been 

 hatched, but continues throughout the summer and autumn, when 

 it degenerates somewhat in character, the sound losing the little 

 musical quality it originally possessed. 



The nest is made in the ground, a hedgebank being the situation 

 preferred, and is round and domed, with an opening at the side- 

 Dry grass, leaves, and moss are the materials used in its construc- 

 tion, the cavity being plentifully lined with feathers. The eggs are 

 six, pure white, spotted and speckled with brown and brownish 

 purple. 



