Birds. 2737 



Arrival and Departure of the Migratory Birds in Oxfordshire. 



The observations from which the following table of the arrival and 

 departure of our migratory birds has been drawn up, were made 

 during the last ten years for our own amusement, without any view to 

 publication, and perhaps with less accuracy than we could now wish. 

 In most of these years the periods of arrival have been regularly no- 

 ticed, and that portion of the list may be regarded as tolerably correct ; 

 but from the much greater difficulty of obtaining an accurate observa- 

 tion of the departure of many of our visitors, the dates below are as- 

 signed to some few with considerable diffidence, though we believe 

 them to be not far wide of the truth. 



In a general table of this kind, comprehending a period of ten years, 

 many intermediate and unimportant dates must of course be omitted ; 

 and on the whole it appears more useful to mention the week, rather 

 than the day, in which the species was seen for the first or last time. 

 In dividing a month according to this plan, the first week must be un- 

 derstood to finish on the seventh day, the second on the fourteenth, 

 and so on, and the two or three last days of each month must be in- 

 cluded in what is termed the fourth week. Thus the earliest appear- 

 ance of the chiff-chaff, taking this species for an example, happened on 

 the 25th of March, 1846, and the latest, of which we have any note, 

 on the 10th of April, 1840: according to our rule, then, the arrival of 

 the chiff-chaff has always occurred on or between the fourth week in 

 March and the second week in April. And in the same way with re- 

 gard to its departure; in 1845 the chiff-chaff was seen for the last 

 time on the 15th of September, while in 1848 it remained with us 

 until the 18th of October: all other notices of its disappearance 

 happening on days intermediate between these two, the time of its 

 departure may therefore, in a general way, be said to range from 

 the third week in September to the third week in the following 

 month. 



It has sometimes been a matter of surprise to us that the season 

 should have so little perceptible effect in hastening or retarding the 

 appearance of our earlier visitors. Often after a long succession of 

 fine warm days, at the end of February and beginning of March, 

 have we looked and listened in vain for a chiff-chaff; while in another 

 year, towards the end of the latter month, when the ground has been 

 hard frozen and covered with snow (as in the spring of 1837), we have 

 been agreeably surprised by the appearance of our little friend, looking 

 perhaps somewhat cold and cheerless, but still hopping from twig to 



