124 REPORTS. 



experimental stations of this sort off the English coasts and 

 shall look forward to further reports of the keepers on the 

 subject. 



In the Notes which follow you will see that, as in previous 

 years, I have been again ably assisted by several members of 

 our Society, and others, to all of whom I tender hearty thanks 

 for their co-operation in this branch of our work. I regret to 

 say that one who for some years had very kindly supplied me 

 with valued notes for his neighbourhood, has passed away. 

 I refer to Mr. E. Durman, the late genial proprietor of the 

 Victoria Hotel, St. Saviour's, who died on November 20th, 

 1913, at the premature age of 41 years. 



Our old friend and ex-President, Mr. E. D. Marquand, 

 A.L.S., writing to me on April 21, from Oxford, where he 

 now 7 resides, said : " Thanks very much for your very inte- 

 resting bird notes. You in Guernsey are much earlier than 

 we are here in the Midlands. The Chiff-chaff and the Willow 

 Wren arrived last week, but only to-day I heard the first 

 joyous note of the Cuckoo ! How it recalls the description of 

 Wordsworth : 



' No bird, but an invisible thing, 

 A voice, a mystery !' 



None of the Swallow tribe have so far put in an appearance. 

 But I am daily listening for the song of the sweetest of them all : 

 the Nightingale ! I wish you could feast your ears upon it." 



Writing to me again on May 5, Mr. Marquand deplored 

 the non-arrival of the Wryneck, and said he supposed the bird 

 did not visit Oxford. So far it has never been my good 

 fortune to hear the Nightingale, but often as I have longed 

 that that little bird included Guernsey in its range of migra- 

 tion I should be deeply sorry for a spring to pass and not hear 

 the delightfully heartening call of the Wryneck. 



With these introductory remarks I will now proceed to 

 give you the results of the year's observations. 



Chiff-Chaff. — The note of this always early arrival was not heard until 

 March 28, when I heard it in the Bon Air valley at St. Martin's. This 

 is nine days later than its recorded arrival last year and is also niy latest 

 date by one day for first hearing the bird. On the 29th Mr. George de 

 Carteret, sen., noted the call at Saints, and on April 3rd the little migrant 

 could be heard singing all over Moulin Huet even more so than the 

 Cuckoo. The Chiff-Chaff reminds one of its presence all through the 

 lengthening days of summer and well on into July. In August a period 

 of quietness comes over the bird, and then with the advent of September 

 one begins to hear the note again. This year I heard it twice in October, 

 the last time being on the 16th, at Les Blanches, but the little fellow had 

 no heart in his song and soon gave it up as a bad job. In 1908 Mr. E. 

 D. Marquand heard one as late as October 22nd at the Talbots, St. 

 Andrew's. 



