1912.] 



REPORTS. 



365 



my notice, or of which I have been very kindly supplied witn 

 notes by other observers. To all those whose names appear 

 in the following paragraphs 1 tender hearty thanks for their 

 valued co-operation with me in this interesting branch of our 

 Society's work. My own field of observation being practically 

 limited to St. Martin's, I feel my notes would be of little 

 worth were they not so copiously supplemented by those of 

 others. 



Chiff-Chaff. — On exactly the same date as last year, viz., March 22nd, this 

 always early spring visitor announced its arrival for the season. I heard 

 the bird that morning in the Bon Air Valley, at St Martin's. On the 

 25th 1 again heard the pleasing note at the same spot and also at the 

 bottom of the Water Lane at Moulin Huet. By the end of the month 

 the bird was to be heard everywhere. Since 1908 the observed date of 

 arrival of the Chiff-Chaff has been on one of the six days, March 22nd to 

 27th, which seems to point to a very regular return of the bird to its 

 summer haunts. The bird was heard as usual all through the summer, 

 but not up to as late a date as generally recorded. As a rule the note is 

 still to be heard in the early days of October, but this year I did not hear 

 it after September 29th. For some reason or other the cheerful little 

 Chiff-Chaff is not nearly so well known as for instance the Cuckoo, or the 

 Wryneck, and yet it has a note quite as much all its own. The 

 note of this little bird was very beautifully described by Morris when he 

 wrote : " The song, frequently heard overhead from the upper part of 

 some tall tree .... falls on the ear with a ringing sound, re- 

 minding one of the faint chime of the distant village church bell." 



WheateaP. — Mr. J. S. Hocart reports seeing a Wheatear on Lancresse 

 Common on April 3rd, and his last date for seeing one is October 12th. 

 My own dates for the arrival and departure of this bird fall between Mr. 

 Hocart' s, for the first I saw was one on the Petit Port cliffs at St. 

 Martin's on April 28th, and I saw none after October 7th, on the after- 

 noon of which day several were still to be seen along the coast road 

 between Pleinmont and L'Eree. Our dates this year are late for the 

 arrival of the bird and early for its departure. 



Wryneck. — April 3rd appears to have been the date of arrival of the 

 Wryneck, or Mackerel bird as it is better known. On that day it was 

 heard by Jurat Kinnersly at Le Varclin, by my wife at Les Blanches, 

 and by Mrs. Alles at La Croix Bertrand, all at St. Martin's. Myself and 

 others heard the bird the next day. At Torteval the Rev. R. H. 

 Tourtel first heard the cry on the 10th ; it was heard in the neighbour- 

 hood of the Victoria Hotel, St. Saviour's, on the 14th, and by Mr. Hocart 

 at Lancresse on the 25th. Mr. Tourtel has given me no date for last 

 hearing the bird, and Mr. Hocart wrote me : "it disappeared from our 

 locality [Lancresse] in the beginning of June." At St. Martin's I con- 

 tinued hearing this migrant frequently until past the third week in July, 

 not in numbers of course, but singly here and there (at Fermain, at Les 

 Blanches, and in the Petit Bot Valley), and heard it for the last time in 

 Fermain Bay lane on July 24th. Our Transactions give but one later 

 date. In 1908 Mr. Hocart heard it as late as the 30th. 



CuckOO. — This, the best known, and most eagerly anticipated of all our bird 

 visitors, was first heard by Mr. C. G. de la Mare on April 18th, at the 

 Haye du Puits ; it was also heard on the same day in the neighbourhood 

 of the Victoiia Hotel, at St. Saviour's. The following day my notes 

 show that it was heard at widely separated spots, for Mr. S. M. Henry 

 reports hearing the call in the grounds at Havilland Hall both morning 

 and evening ; my brother-in-law, Mr. Gk F. Alles, heard it at Moulin 



