In the adult male the beak is brown; under mandible
pale yellow brown at the base ; irides hazel; a narrow light-
coloured streak over the eye ; crown of the head, neck, back,
and upper tail-coverts, dull olive-green ; wing and tail-feathers
darker brown, the former edged with green ; the ter-
tials to a greater extent than the primaries: the tail slightly
notched, the two middle feathers being a trifle shorter than
the others; chin, throat, and breast, whitish, but strongly
tinged with yellow; belly almost white ; flanks, and under
tail-coverts, like the feathers on the front of the neck, tinged
with yellow; under wing-coverts bright yellow, some of
which extend over the outer edge of the wing, from the carpal
joint to the bastard or spurious wing-feathers; under surface
of wing and tail-feathers greyish brown; legs, toes, and claws,
pale brown.
The whole length of the bird about five inches ; from the
carpal joint to the end of the longest primary, two inches and
a half; the first quill-feather short; the second equal in
length to the sixth, but not so long as the fifth ; the third,
fourth, and fifth feathers, nearly equal in length, and the
longest in the wing.
The females scarcely differ from the males either in size
or plumage; and these birds moult as soon as the breeding
season is over.
Young birds in their nestling feathers resemble the parent
birds in the colour of their plumage; but in the autumn after
their first moult the whole of the under surface of the body
is more decidedly yellow than the same parts in the parent
birds at the same season, and this yellow colour is retained to
some extent till after their re-appearance here in the following
spring, so that it is not difficult to select the birds of the
previous year from those which are older.
1NSESSORES. SY LV IAD& .
DENTIROSTRES.
TH E C H IF F CHAFF.
Sylvia hippolais, Lesser Pettychaps, P enn. Brit. Zool. vol. i. p. 508.
Motacilla ,, ,, ,, Montagu, Ornith. Diet.
Chiff Chaff, B ewick, British Birds, vol. i. p. 267.
Trochilus minor, Least Willow Wren, ,, ,, ,, ,, 268.
Regulus hippolais, Lesser Pettychaps, F lem. Brit. An. p. 72.
Sylvia ,, ,, ,, Selby, Brit. Ornith. vol. i. p. 222.
„ ,, Chiff Chaff, J enyns, Brit. Vert. p. 111.
,, ,, ,, ,, G ould, Birds of Europe, pt. i.
,, rufa, Bec-fin veloce, T emm. Man. d’Ornith. vol. i. p.225.
W ith the exception of the Wheatear, the diminutive
Chiff Chaff is the first of the Warblers that visits us in spring,
and by his sprightly actions, as well as his oft-repeated
double-note, resembling the two syllables, ‘ Chiff, Chaff,1
from which he derives his name, is always a welcome visiter
as one of the first harbingers of returning fine weather. This
hardy little bird has been seen as early as the 12 th and