36 The Coming of the Birds 



the swift unfolding of a normal spring there is by 

 that time abundant cover to conceal them in the 

 thickening hedgerows and larch woods, and among 

 the willows budding by the water -sides. But the 

 migrant birds that arrive in the earliest days of 

 April, or before it, enter a world still almost empty 

 of sheltering verdure, and their presence is often 

 overlooked from the very bareness of the fields 

 into which they come. In the south and west of 

 England the chiffchaff may almost always be heard 

 among the still naked branches in the last few days 

 of March, and now and then a good deal earlier. 

 A bird so small and brown and lurking is always 

 likely to escape notice if it does not sing ; and when 

 March goes out under windy and snow-laden skies, 

 the chiffchaff may be haunting its accustomed 

 copses for days before it is observed. Only patient 

 search or pure chance is likely to discover the slight 

 brown shape when it is still so rare and so silent. 

 Monotonous as is the chiffchaff's double note, it 

 has the true elements of sweetness and softness 

 which distinguish the voices of the summer warblers, 

 and it chimes in the subdued March lane with a tone 

 which is new to the year. The song-thrush, robin, 

 wren, and hedge-sparrow all have the keen, spirited 

 tone of birds which have dared the winter and not 

 been dismayed ; and though this indomitableness 

 in their music is unceasingly full of attraction, 

 there is a softer strain proper to summer, which 

 the chiffchaff is the first small bird to bring. The 

 easy, lazy blackbird sings, indeed, the true warm- 

 weather music, and waits as a rule for warmer 



