18 REPORTS. 



ing note has greeted our country rambles much less frequently than 

 usual. Due about March 21st it was not until April 9th that I first heard 

 the Chiff-Chaff (at St. Martin's) and I did not hear it again after 

 September 20th. As regards the bird's arrival the date I have given is, 

 in ten years, my latest date by eight days, and that for the departure is 

 quite unaccountably early, the bird being almost invariably heard well 

 into October, sometimes past even the middle of the month, as was, for 

 instance, the case in the years 1908 (22nd), 1914 (10th), 1915 (19th). 



Wheatear. —The Wheatear also appears to have been late in putting in an 

 appearance, although lacking Mr. Hocart's Vale notes I make the state- 

 ment under reservation. It was on Easter Monday, April 9th, in a field 

 off the Forest Road, that I saw the first of these migrants, and I notice 

 that our Transactions record but one later date for the Wheatear' s arrival, 

 viz., the 16th (in 1916). As with the Chiff-Chaff the Wheatear would 

 seem to have left us very early for I saw none after September 21st. 

 Again, however, I wish to emphasize the fact that this is my own obser- 

 vation only ; others may have seen the bird later, for it is one of our 

 feathered visitors that can still often be seen until towards the end of 

 October. 



Wryneck.— Another, for certain, very late arrival, for which we are probably 

 perfectly justified, in blaming the weather. Heard sometimes in the 

 latter days of March and frequently quite early in April, nobody appears 

 to have heard the always more than welcome note until the 23rd of the 

 latter month when, very early in the morning of that day, Mr. John 

 Mogford heard it at Moulin Huet. The following day myself and others 

 at St. Martin's were able to confirm Mr. Mogford's observation. As 

 soon as ever, if not indeed before, the Wryneck is due I am out listening 

 for it, for it is one of my favourite spring migrants, and I am able to 

 state from an examination of ni}^ twenty-nine years' record that April 

 24th is by six days my latest date for first hearing the bird. Mr. Thomas 

 Robin, of Les Eturs, Catel, has given me April 25th as the date of arrival 

 in that neighbourhood. By May 1st I had only heard the bird twice and 

 throughout the singing season the occasions on which I was greeted by 

 the heartening call were disappointingly few. For instance on June 16th 

 1 added to a note recording the hearing of the bird that day, " Had not 

 heard the Wryneck for weeks." My own opinion is that fewer birds 

 have come to the island this year and this notwithstanding the fact of 

 Mr. Robin telling me he had heard the note frequently during June and 

 the beginning of July, at the Catel. My last date for hearing the bird 

 was July 11th, the Rev. R. H. Tourtel, B.D., Rector of Torteval, July 

 14th, and Mr. Robin, at the Catel, July 16th. 



Cuckoo. — Far from being late in arriving the Cuckoo apparently announced 

 itself several days before its "mate," the Wryneck, which is supposed 

 to come a week or ten days in advance. In my twenty -nine years' 

 record the nearest parallel I can find to this extraordinary reversal of 

 things was in the spring of 1895 when I heard both birds for the first 

 time on the same day, viz., April 12th. Had the hard winter and the 

 late spring anything to do with this ? The spring of 1895 was colder 

 than the normal, but not nearly so cold as this has been, and it followed 

 a winter (Dec. -Feb.) which, for severity, is without parallel in this island's 

 records. And now, after twenty-two years, we have experienced a 

 winter which approached very much nearer to that of 1894-5 than any 

 that have come between. In one respect it was more trying. It lacked 

 the remarkably low temperatures of February, 1895, but the period of cold 

 lasted very much longer — in fact far into the spring-time. Do these way t 

 ward seasons affect the arrival of our spring migrants? I ask the 

 question in view of this apparent irregularity in the order of appearing of 

 the Wryneck and Cuckoo in 1895 and 1917. With this digression I shall 

 now proceed. The first to note the arrival of the Cuckoo this year was 



