79 



THE WILLOW- WARBLER. 



Pliylloscopus trochilus (L.). 



The Willow- Warbler arrived along the whole of the south 

 coast, but chiefly on the western half. 



The earliest record was of one seen in Dorsetshire on the 

 10th of March, and between the 14th and 29th stragglers were 

 reported in a few districts as far north as Staffordshire, 

 Northamptonshire and Leicestershire. Between the 27th of 

 March and the 8th of April small numbers arrived in a 

 straggling manner at points along the whole of the south coast 

 and scattered over the country, but with the exception of one 

 or two birds that reached Westmoreland on the 4th of April 

 and Yorkshire on the Gth, they do not seem to have penetrated 

 any further north than their predecessors, though they spread 

 laterally into Wales and East Anglia. 



On the 9th and 11th an immigration of somewhat larger 

 dimensions occurred at the eastern end of the south coast, 

 but if the birds composing it penetrated far from their points 

 of entiy, their subsequent course was lost in the very 

 extensive movement that immediately succeeded it. This 

 latter, which no doubt included the bulk of our breeding- 

 birds, began with arrivals at both the eastern and western 

 ends of the south coast on the 12th and 13th. In the west 

 fresh arrivals took place daily up to the 28th and in 

 Hampshire up to the 20th of April ; bet\\een that d;ite and 

 the 28th in Hampshire, and up to the 21st in Sussex and 

 Kent, the arrivals were intermittent and seem then to have 

 ceased. Durincr the earlier half of this movement con- 

 siderable numbers occurred at the light-stations off the 

 Devon and Cornish coasts, as well as in the Channel Islands. 

 The progress of these birds northward is well shown in the 

 Chronological Summary, the southern counties filling up 



