Bird Life in Herts, 
(146) 
THE BIRD WORLD. 
bridge. An interesting note re this little 
bird comes from Haileybury, Mr. 
Vaughan writing as follows“ I 
heard the Chiffchaff on September 28th, 
29th, and October 1st. Its stay was pro¬ 
bably due to the warm weather.” It is 
well known that the Chiffchaff, like some 
other birds, recommences to sing after 
the annual moult, but this is the first 
record of the occurrence that I remem¬ 
ber to have had in Hertfordshire. 
Woodren (Phylloscopus sibilatrix). 
This small warbler did not appear at 
all in the records for 1905. For 1906, 
however, it is reported by Mr. P. J. 
Barraud (Bushey Heath), on May 2nd, 
and by Mr. Headley (Haileybury), as 
singing on May 24th, and as still in 
song on June 25th. Personally, I have 
never seen or heard this bird in my dis¬ 
trict. 
Grasshopper Warbler (Locustella 
ncevial). 
I have received only two notes on this 
rare species. Mr. Vaughan (Hailey¬ 
bury) : “ I used to hear the Grasshopper 
Warbler in the vicinity of the college, 
but have not done so for years.” Mr. 
A. W. Dickinson (St. Albans), includes 
it in the list of birds that are becoming 
scarcer in the county. 
Tits. 
Mr. Hopkinson has sent me the sub¬ 
joined note re the “ Tomtit,” taken from 
the Hertfordshire Mercury, June 16th, 
1906, under the local news from Codi- 
cote :—“ A strange nesting place.—As a 
tradesman of the village was in his gar¬ 
den a few days ago he noticed a Tomtit 
come from the direction of his beehives. 
On making an inspection he found that 
a Tomtit’s nest had been built in one of 
his bar-framed hives, and the nest con¬ 
tained eleven eggs. It was evident that 
the birds had got access to the hive 
from the back. The nest was well 
built, and is certainly a novelty, it being 
fourteen inches long, three and a half 
inches wide, and two and a half inches 
in depth throughout. These birds have 
been known to be very destructive to 
bees in the early spring. The nest con¬ 
taining the eggs was handed over to our 
correspondent, and has been inspected 
by a large number of people.” I imagine 
that all the four commoner species of 
Tits are “ Tomtits ” to the uninitiated, 
so that the exact species is not recorded. 
Probably it was the Blue Tit ( Parus 
caeruleus). 
Tree Creeper (Certhia familiar is). 
In my notes of last year I stated as 
follows In 1902 I reported on the 
then increasing scarcity of this attrac¬ 
tive little bird. I regret that I cannot 
now after three years’ further observa¬ 
tion report any increase in its numbers 
so far as the Watford district is con¬ 
cerned. In fact, it seems to get 
more and more scarce each year. I 
have only seen three during the year.” 
I think these remarks must, in some 
mysterious way, have gone the round of 
all the Tree Creepers in the Watford 
district, and that one and all must have 
conspired to resent and to refute the 
statement thus made against their tribe. 
For certain it is that I have seen Tree 
Creepers all through the year, and in 
all parts of the district, and in such 
numbers that I had never looked upon 
as possible for so comparatively rare a 
species as I had regarded this to be. 
I do not mean that I have seen large 
numbers together, or at once, for Tree 
Creepers are anything but sociable 
birds, and one never sees more than one 
or two at a time. But I have seen them 
almost on every ramble I have taken, 
and sometimes I have seen as many as 
half a dozen on one morning’s walk. 
And, as I happened to mention in the 
discussion that followed my last year’s 
paper at St. Albans, I have actually 
had the pleasure of hearing one sing. 
This interesting little incident happened 
on March 4th, 1906, in Cassiobury 
Park. I watched a pair of Tree 
Creepers fly on to one of the elms in 
the large cross avenue, and time after 
time in their upward progression round 
the trunk, I saw and heard one of them 
give out a bright, sweet little song that 
I had never heard before in my life, and 
may probably never hear again. As a 
matter of fact, I did not at the time 
realise the full significance of this little 
