814 • The Zoologist — July, 18G7. 



varying from barely one inch and a quarter to barely one inch and a 

 half, and six males with bills from one inch to one inch and a quarter 

 bare. If other ornithologists would make similar examinations of any 

 of the waders which may pass through their hands, we shall perhaps 

 be able to arrive at a proper conclusion in the matter. The bill of the 

 bartailed godwit varies from three inches to four and a half inches, 

 and my impression is that, as a ride, the female is rather the larger 

 bird and has the longer bill. In plumage the male dunlin is redder on 

 the back than the female, aud has the black breast rather more 

 perfect. 



W. Jeffery, jun. 



Rutlnuii, Chichester, June 8, 1867. 



Arrival of Summer Birds at Shooter's Hill and Neighbourhood. 

 By Matthew Hutchinson, Esq. 



On the 4th of March, 18G7, while watching half-a-dozen longtailed 

 tits at the edge of the wood east of Shooter's Hill, and carefully 

 examining through a glass a fine male perched on a twig and snapping 

 at the gnats swarming three feet from the ground, a bird alighted just 

 above him, and I at once saw it was the chiffchaff : there were its dark 

 legs and light lines above and below the eye : its feathers were stuck 

 out, and it looked dull, cold and uncomfortable. A marsh tit now 

 came to the same hazel-bush, and they (lew off with the longtailed tils 

 into the wood. The male longtailed tit was rich in colour, and I fancy 

 may be mistaken by many for the Dartford warbler, which I have not 

 seen, and never expect to see. 



Although we had sharp cold weather with snow on the 6th and 7th, 

 a gardener on the top of Shooter's Hill, on the 8th, heard a chiffchaff 

 chipping away in the top of a tree. The longtailed tits appeared early 

 and numerous, then came the tomtits, then the great tits, a few marsh 

 tits, and now and then a cole tit. 



On the 16th of March there were more chaffinches. From the 14th 

 to the 2 1st we had cold N.E. winds with snow-storms. 



On the 26th of March I saw a chiffchaff, so brilliant in colour and 

 so yellow underneath that 1 mistook it for a willow wren. It was 

 catching gnats like a flycatcher, and by dint of patience aud perse- 

 verance 1 at last got the light on its dark legs, and saw distinctly it 

 was not the willow wren, but the chiffchaff. I have watched the 



