i82 BIRDS 



I hope you will make fast friends with during 

 your country wanderings, and a few notes con- 

 cerning these two feathered favourites of mine may 

 be of interest. 



I refer to the Chiff Chaff and the Willow Wren. 

 The bird books state that these two visitors from 

 over the seas reach us " some time during March." 

 Personally, I find March 20 is about the date one 

 may visit the neighbourhood of a wood, or coppice, 

 in the expectation of hearing or seeing these 

 two little feathered harbingers of Summer. Both 

 birds haunt the tops of tall trees, but build their 

 nests upon the ground. The nests are very much 

 alike, being oval in shape with a hole in front. 

 The structure is built of dead grasses and similar 

 materials, and the inside is snugly lined with a 

 profusion of feathers. The Chiif Chaff lays six 

 eggs, and the Willow Wren from five to seven. 

 The egg of the first named is more rounded and 

 larger than that of the latter, and the red spots 

 are darker and not suffused. 



On seeing the two birds, even only a little dis- 

 tance away, it is difficult to distinguish one from 

 the other. The general colour is brown, yellow, 

 and greenish, but the Willow Wren has a yellower 

 breast, and is brighter in its plumage as a rule. I 

 have often been puzzled as to these two birds, and 

 remember how, as a boy, I used to watch them so 

 as to train my eye correctly. For several years I 



