114 THE NESTS AND EGGS OF BRITISH BIRDS. 



then glides quietly off into the cover, but will frequently 

 hop restlessly about at arm's length, occasionally uttering 

 the harsh and warning tec. The cock-bird occasionally 

 sings whilst sitting on the nest. Nest after nest will 

 sometimes be made in one locality, as often as they are 

 removed. 



Range of egg colouration and measurement: 

 The eggs of the Blackcap are four or five in number, 

 sometimes six ; and in cases where the first clutch has 

 been taken, only three. Three distinct types occur in 

 the eggs of this species. The most frequent of these is 

 dull white in ground colour, clouded and suffused with 

 olive or buffish-brown, and here and there spotted and 

 occasionally streaked with rich dark brown. The 

 second type has the ground colour suffused with very 

 pale blue, blotched and spotted with yellowish-brown, 

 and with a few streaks of darker brown, and with 

 numerous and large underlying markings of gray. The 

 rarest type is pale brick red in ground colour, marbled 

 and clouded with darker red, and sparingly spotted and 

 streaked with dark purplish-brown. Average measure- 

 ment, '8 inch in length, by '56 inch in breadth. In- 

 cubation, performed almost equally by both sexes, lasts 

 fourteen days. 



Diagnostic characters : Many eggs of the 

 Blackcap are undistinguishable from those of the 

 Garden Warbler, but the red type seems peculiar to the 

 present species. They require very careful identification. 



