64 BIRD-LIFE IN A SOUTHERN COUNTY. 



We have often remarked, as a fact worthy 

 of note, that the earliest pioneers of various 

 migratory species are invariably met with in 

 orchards or their immediate vicinity. We attri- 

 bute this largely to the abundance of insect food 

 lurking in such places. The first Chiffchaff of 

 the year we may almost safely predict will be 

 observed in the orchard ; the same remarks apply to 

 the Willow Wren and the Blackcap. Upon land- 

 ing in our- islands these birds appear to make 

 straight for the orchards at once. In the same 

 way, the odd examples of the Chiffchaff that we 

 have known to pass the winter in the county have 

 been met with in orchards. There is, however, 

 no evidence to suggest that these birds have ever 

 formed part of the normal avifauna of Devonshire. 

 It is popularly supposed that these little laggards 

 have been tempted to remain by the mildness of 

 the climate and the abundance of food ; but it 

 seems to us that they are migrants out of their 

 normal course, lost birds arrested in their southern 

 flight by the, to them, unknown waters of the 

 English Channel, and reluctantly compelled to 

 take their chance and to brave the inclemencies 

 of a northern winter. Possibly the number of 



