222 BIRDS 



The Cliiff Chaff was somewhat late; I did not 

 hear his two welcome notes — ^which so much 

 resemble his name — until April 7, but it seems 

 fallacious to take too seriously the first date on 

 which a migrant is seen or heard as the date of its 

 arrival. Thus a correspondent in Somersetshire 

 writes me that the Chiff Chaff was first heard 

 there by him on March 31, the Willow Warbler 

 on April 7, and the Blackcap and the Lesser 

 Whitethroat on the loth, yet in Hertfordshire 

 the Chiff Chaff and the Wheatear were the only 

 migrants included in my list prior to April 14. 



With the surroundings so damp and the season 

 so late, it seemed fiction instead of fact when I 

 eagerly informed my bird friends of having just 

 watched one of those delightful song-flights of 

 the Tree Pipit in his favourite haunt, having 

 heard the first strains of England's sweet-voiced 

 Philomel, the pretty little warble of the Willow 

 Wren, and the tremulous song of the green-liveried 

 Wood Wren. 



Since these first few lines were penned, how 

 different have the surroundings been! On the 

 17th of the month a spell of Summerlike weather 

 set in, and continued until the end of the month, 

 with only a cold day or two to mar our comfort. 

 And what a change by the countryside! All is 

 now verdant green, the copse resounds with the 

 cry of " Cuckoo ! " and the indescribable music of 



