73 



THE CHIFFCHAFF. 



PJiylloscopus rufus (Bechst.). 



There cannot be the slightest doubt that the arrivals of 

 the ChiffchafF on the south coast were to the west of the 

 Hampshire and Sussex border, and that the eastern and 

 south-eastern counties were stocked by birds spreading in 

 an easterly and north-easterly direction. The main feature 

 of this bird's arrival was the constant and steady stream that 

 arrived in the area above-mentioned ; it started on March 

 the 27th and lasted with only two intermissions of a single 

 day till the 8th of April. A more or less artificial division 

 into separate movements might be made, for there seems to 

 have been a tendency all through for the migrants to arrive 

 first in Devon, then on the following days in Dorset and 

 Hampshire ; but, as in most cases a fresh arrival began in 

 Devon before the previous one had finished arriving in 

 Hampshire, it would be best perhaps to regard the movement 

 as one large immigration. 



Previous to the arrival of the main body there were two 

 small immigrations. The first of these reached Hampshire 

 and probably also Devon on March the 16th or 17th, and 

 spread thence into Somerset, Wiltshire, Berkshire, Oxford, 

 Cambridge^ Derby and Norfolk, its general trend being in 

 a north-easterly direction. The second immigration was 

 headed by the arrival of a few stragglers in Hampshire on 

 the 19th of March, the main body reaching the western half 

 of the south coast from Devon to Hampshire on the 21st, 

 while a further body reached Cornwall on the 23rd and 

 Devon on the 24th. 



Some of thetse birds spread through Somerset mainly on 

 the 23rd and 26th, thence into South and -Mid-Wales by 



