WILLOW-WAEBLEE AND CHIFF-CHAFF. 27 



sanction of his clear resonant voice. We may grow tired of Hs 

 two notes — he never gets beyond two — ^for he sings almost the 

 whole summer through, and was in full voice on the 25th of 

 September in the same year in which he began on March 23rd.; 

 but not even the first twitter of the Swallow, or the earliest 

 song of the Nightingale, has the same hopeful story to tell me 

 as this delicate traveller who dares the east wind and the frost. 

 They spend the greater part of the year with us ; I have seen 

 them still lurking in sheltered corners of the Dorsetshire coast, 

 at the beginning of October, within sound of the sea-waves in 

 which many of them must doubtless perish before they reach 

 their journey's end. And now and then they will even pass 

 the winter with us : this was the case with a pair that took 

 up their sojourn at Bodicote near Banbury, in a winter of general 

 mildness, though not unbroken, if I recollect right, by some very 

 sharp frosts. 



The Willow-warbler follows his cousin to England in a very 

 few days, and remains his companion in the trees all through 

 the summer. He has the same brownish-yellow back and 

 yellowish-white breast, but is a very little larger, and sings 

 a very different song, which is unique among all British birds. 

 Beginning with a high and tolerably full note, he drops it 

 both in force and pitch in a cadence short and sweet, as though 

 he were getting exhausted with the effort ; for that it is a real 

 effort to him and all his slim and tender relations, no one who 

 watches as well as listens can have a reasonable doubt. This 

 cadence is often perfect, by which I mean that it descends 

 gradually, not of course on the notes of our musical scale, by 



