chiffchaff

[ chif-chaf, -chahf ]

/ ˈtʃɪfˌtʃæf, -ˌtʃɑf /

a common, greenish Old World warbler, Phylloscopus collybita.

Origin of chiffchaff

First recorded in 1770–80; gradational compound; imitative

In the north of England, as it is in the south, the Chiffchaff is perhaps the most constant pioneer of the spring migrants.

Among the Birds in Northern Shires |Charles Dixon
Chiffchaff and willow-wren came as usual, but they did not arrive in a crowd at once.

Nature Near London |Richard Jefferies
Only a very few days since—it does not seem a week—there was a chiffchaff calling in a copse as merrily as in the spring.

Nature Near London |Richard Jefferies
This name, however, is probably equally applicable to the Chiffchaff.

Birds of Guernsey (1879) |Cecil Smith

The first swallow they looked for, and never missed; but they neither heard nor saw the chiffchaff.

Nature Near London |Richard Jefferies

chiffchaff

/ (ˈtʃɪfˌtʃæf) /

a common European warbler, Phylloscopus collybita, with a yellowish-brown plumage

C18: imitative of its call