489 



When it traverses any distance between grove and grove, it flies in a succession of jerky bow- 

 shaped bounds, and appears to be in a great hurry. Uneasy and restless, it is not companionable 

 either towards others of its own species or towards small birds which frequent the groves where 

 it is. It affects both greenwood- and conifer-groves, and especially those where conifers and 

 greenwood trees are intermixed. It is also to be found in gardens, especially such as contain 

 plenty of bushes where it can find insects, also in orchards, and occasionally in places overgrown 

 with high weeds. It appears to inhabit the loftier trees chiefly in the summer, and is more 

 frequently to be seen in low bushes, and even on the ground, in the spring and autumn. Its 

 food consists almost exclusively of insects of various kinds, especially such as are to be met. 

 with amongst the foliage of trees and bushes ; but in the autumn, when insect food is scarce, 

 it is said even to feed to some extent on small berries. It either picks the insects or larva? off 

 the leaves and branches of the trees and bushes, occasionally searching for food on the ground, 

 or else it will catch the gnats or flies on the wing. Its note, which is uttered whilst it is 

 hopping about amongst the branches, is weak but shrill, and resembles the syllables chiff-chaff, 

 chiffy-chaffy, or cheep-cheep, cheep-cheep, uttered at short intervals. 



The nest is usually placed on the ground, in a bank, or behind a stump, amongst tolerably 

 dense grass or weeds, and only very rarely above the ground. Doubleday informed Yarrell that he 

 found a nest placed in dead fern at least two feet higher than the ground ; and Hewitson mentions 

 another instance of a nest being built in some ivy against a garden-wall. Usually the nest is 

 placed in an open spot in a wood or on the edge of a grove, never in the depths of the forests, 

 where the ground is but scantily covered with tangled herbage. The nest of the Chiffchaff is 

 oven-shaped or nearly round, semidomed, with a large opening at the side, and is externally 

 constructed of dried leaves, grass bents, moss, &c, and neatly and closely lined with plant-cotton, 

 feathers, and hair, feathers being more frequently used than any other material. A very 

 beautiful nest sent to me from Norway by Mr. Robert Collett is constructed entirely of very 

 blanched grass-straws, and lined with small white feathers. The eggs, from five to six in 

 number, are white, transparent so that the yelk shows through, and are somewhat sparingly 

 spotted and dotted with deep purplish red, while now and again there is a small violet-grey 

 shell-spot. In size they average about f^ by \% inch. 



The variation in size in specimens of the Chiffchaff from various localities is by no means 

 inconsiderable. When Mr. Seebohm was working at his paper on the Phylloscopi (Ibis, 1S77, 

 pp. 66-108) I measured and examined a large series of specimens from various localities, and 

 quite agree with him in uniting Phylloscopus brehmi, Phylloscopus brevirostris, and Phylloscopus 

 abyssinicus with the present species. The first of these three is, as a rule, somewhat smaller 

 than the general run of examples of Phylloscopus collybita, but differs in no other respect ; and 

 males of this southern form are about equal in size to females from the north of Europe. The 

 general variation in size appears to be, in males — wing 2-25 to 2'55 inches, tail 2 - to 2 - 2 ; and in 

 females— wing 1-95 to 2-3, tail 1-7 to 2-0. 



The specimens figured are an adult male, in spring plumage, from Asia Minor, and an adult 

 male, in autumn dress, from Piedmont, both of which are in my own collection. 



In the preparation of the above article I have examined the following specimens : — 



5a2 



