278 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



and on the following day the male recommenced singing, but although 

 Mr. Longbottom paid frequent visits almost to the end of August he 

 did not hear its song again. The above record is interesting because 

 it establishes the fact that this species, occasionally if not frequently, 

 is double-brooded ; and also for the fact that the male ceases to sing, 

 at least during the incubation and rearing of its young, and the short 

 period between the commencement of the nest and the young leaving 

 the nest. It seems strange that after two broods were hatched and 

 got off at Bingley last year, the bird should be absent altogether 

 from the district this year (1916), but after all this is only in accord- 

 ance with what we know of its habits in other parts of its range in 

 Britain. In Yorkshire it is erratically and but sparsely distributed, 

 nowhere abundant or even common for many years in succession 

 except in a very few localities. 



The Chiffchaff is such a common and general breeding species in 

 England that most ornithologists may be surprised that the fact 

 should be recorded here, but the first instance of this species nesting 

 in this district came to my notice on June 14th last. Mr. Long- 

 bottom, of Bingley, came to my Eldwick home on the 11th instant, 

 and said he had heard what he took to be a Chiffchaff singing in Sir 

 James Boberts' park near Saltaire, about half-a-mile away, and 

 wished me to go and confirm or otherwise his determination. Of 

 course I went immediately, and we did not wait long before I both 

 heard and saw the bird, which was undoubtedly a Chiffchaff. It 

 was singing on the edge of the park, and Mr. Longbottom had been 

 listening to its song and trying to find its nest for three hours, but 

 had not succeeded, and we both tried for over an hour without 

 success and then left. On June 14th I met Mr. Longbottom again 

 by appointment at the same place, and he informed me that the 

 Chiffchaff was not singing so freely at its old quarters, but had 

 shifted about a hundred yards away and had been singing mostly 

 nearer the north lodge. On visiting the north lodge entrance the 

 male bird was singing, and on watching the bird for some ten or 

 twenty minutes the female appeared, and on looking over soon after 

 I saw the female with some building-material in her mouth, which 

 she took to a spot covered by ivy about six yards from our position. 

 We waited some, perhaps ten, minutes, and she was taking building- 

 material every few seconds. On June 16th I went to the nest, which 

 was complete but contained no egg. On June 18th the nest had one 

 egg, on the 21st four eggs, and on the 25th five eggs, its full clutch, 

 I presumed. The nest is larger than a Willow- Warbler's with a larger 

 hole for entrance, and is not so artfully concealed. I think this must 



