THE COMMON CHIFF-CHAFF. 269 



This species is nearly the same size as the hay-bird. In its 

 plumage it so much resembles that bird, that we shall onlv 

 make mention here of some essential marks of distinction, and 

 refer our readers to the hay-bird. 



Its general colour is not so much tinged with yellow, and 

 the legs are dusky, which in the other are brown. 



The plumage of the sexes are alike. 



These two birds liave been, and are, frequently confounded, 

 and with them the wood wren of this work ; but this last is at 

 once distinguished by the under tail-coverts being a pure white, 

 and the plumage of a more lively green on the upper parts 

 than either of the others. The nest, eggs, and notes, will be 

 found also different by consulting and comparing the history of 

 each. This is the first of all the migrative warblers (^Sylviadai) 

 in its annual visit, and is, perhaps, the only one that has occa- 

 sionally been observed with us during the winter, and that only 

 in the milder parts of England. It is generally heard on or 

 before the first of April repeating its song, if that may be so 

 called which consists only of four notes, which seem to express 

 the words chip^ chop, cherry, churry, four or five times succes- 

 sively. It is a busy, restless bird, always active among the 

 trees and bushes in search of insects. From its early cry in 

 our neighbourhood, we long suspected it would be found that 

 this hardy little bird did not wholly quit us, and in this opinion 

 we were confirmed by seeing one in the garden about Christ- 

 mas, 1806. In the following January, we observed two of 

 these little creatures busied in catching the small insects which 

 a bright day had roused in great abundance about some fir 

 trees, by springing upon them from the ends of the branches, 

 one of which we succeeded in shooting. Another, which we 

 killed in 1808, on the same spot, while feeding upon a small 

 species of culex^ weighed one drachm thirty-three grains ; this 

 will easily account for the very early cry of this bird in the 

 spring, as it is highly probable that they remain with us the 

 whole year, but are wholly silent in the winter. The earliest 

 we ever heard was on the 14tli of March, 1804, when vegeta- 

 tion was unusually early. 



The nest of this species is oval, with a small hole near the 

 top, composed extenially of dry leaves, and then coarse dry 



82 



