Chiff Chaff. 165 



March ; indeed, next to the Wheatear, it is the earliest migrant 

 to tell us that spring is at hand. And, again, it may be distin- 

 guished by the peculiar monotonous song of two notes which it 

 begins to utter immediately on arrival, and which it continues 

 to repeat throughout the summer, and whence it derives its 

 name; ' Chiff Chaff/ 'Chip Chop,' 'Choice and Cheap/ 'Twit 

 Twit/ 'Fit Fit/ being some of the syllables which various 

 observers have applied to it, and which it continues to pour 

 forth incessantly, even in the bleakest and most boisterous 

 weather, from the top of some tall tree or leafless branch. It is 

 distinguished from its congeners in France by the title of Bee-fin 

 a poitrinejaune, and in Sweden as Gul-brostad Sdngare, 'Yellow 

 breasted Warbler/ Hippolais is derived by the B.O.U. Committee 

 from uro + Xaag, a name originally given by Aristotle to some 

 bird from its habit of creeping under stones. But Professor 

 Newton bestows* on it the specific name of Collubita, from 

 xoiJ.vGiffrfa, ' a money-changer/ a name given it by Vieillot, 

 because in some parts of Normandy it was called, from its note, 

 ' Compteur d' argent.' 



It is the smallest of the three species, and differs very little 

 from the last, but may always be distinguished by the dark 

 colour of its legs and feet, those of the Willow Warbler being of 

 a pale brown : it is much more familiar than its congeners, and 

 as it reaches us before the trees and hedges are in leaf, is more 

 frequently seen and better known. It is the ' Lesser Pettychaps' 

 of Gilbert White and Montagu, and in truth it does resemble, 

 though on a much smaller scale, the ' Greater Pettychaps/ as 

 they called the ' Garden Warbler.' It is a very sprightly and 

 active as well as hardy bird, and does not leave us till October, 

 being one of the last to depart as it was one of the first to arrive 

 here. It winters in Algeria, and Egypt and North Africa gene- 

 rally, assembling in countless multitudes, and spreading over the 

 cornfields and gardens until its short winter is past. 



* Professor Newton in fourth edition of Yarrell's ' British Birds/ vol. i., 

 p. 442. 



