It has yearly been our delight to listen for the cheery “chiff chaff” which announces the first arrival of this bird. Winter is hardly over, the March winds still blow and the trees are bare, but still he comes to brave our inclement weather and retain his position as the first harbinger of spring. A small green Warbler of skulking habits, we will have to watch carefully if we wish to see him, for as we approach he will leave his post high up on some tree and hide in the undergrowth. For some weeks he wanders about the country, here to-day and gone to-morrow—apparently at the dictates of his own will, but in reality ever creeping up steadily northwards in the trail of departing winter. At the end of April or beginning of May, having chosen his mate, the duties of nest-building begin. The nest is loosely placed in some bramble thicket or undergrowth in a wood, and often appears as though it had been carelessly thrown there. It is dome or oval shaped, loosely built of bents, moss, and leaves, and warmly lined with feathers. The six eggs are white, dotted and spotted with dark reddish brown.

Its food consists almost entirely of small flies, caterpillars, and other insects, which it captures among the branches and leaves of the trees, rarely descending to the ground. Two broods are reared in the season and the rest of the summer is spent quietly and unobtrusively till, in October, the first storms of winter and growing scarcity of food compel it to retire southwards. This it does reluctantly, and a certain number spend the winter in the milder climate of Devon and Cornwall.

The upper parts are olive green; wing coverts, quills, and tail feathers brown, edged with the same colour. Under parts whitish. There is a pale yellowish white streak above the eye. The sexes are alike in plumage and the young are slightly greener. Length 4·6 in.; wing 2·35 in.

This species may be distinguished from the Willow Wren by its smaller size and darker legs. The second quill is equal to the seventh and the outer webs are emarginated near their tips up to and including the sixth. In the Willow Wren the emargination only reaches the fifth and the second is equal in length to the sixth. It should be remembered that the first quill is very short and inconspicuous, so that the first apparent quill is the second.

This species is scarcer and more local than the Willow Wren. In Scotland it is local and is only a straggler to the north of that country and the surrounding islands.