THE BLACKCAP WARBLER 27 



wards to Asia Minor, Palestine and Western Persia. 

 In some of the more southern portions of its range 

 (practically throughout the basin of the Mediter- 

 ranean) it is apparently a sedentary species, but its 

 winter limits extend in Africa to within ten degrees 

 of the equator. 



The Blackcap makes its appearance in the British 

 Islands during the first half of April, a little earlier 

 in the southern districts than in the northern ones. 

 Thus in South Devon, where this bird is exception- 

 ally common, I find the date of arrival to be on an 

 average the loth of April ; in South Yorkshire it is 

 about a week later. In places where it is common 

 the Blackcap is most ubiquitous in its choice of a 

 haunt. It may be met with in all sorts of places, 

 in gardens, orchards, hedges, plantations, shrubberies, 

 woods, and the dense thickets by the side of streams. 

 We have repeatedly remarked its partiality for, and 

 its exceptional abundance in, the vicinity of houses ; 

 it is therefore perhaps the most familiar and the 

 best known of the typical British Warblers. Arriv- 

 ing as it often does long before the trees are in full 

 leaf, and given to song almost directly after its 

 appearance, it cannot readily be overlooked. It is 

 neither so shy nor so skulking in its habits as the 

 Garden Warbler and the Whitethroats, and as often 

 as not may be watched for minutes in succession 

 on the bare branches as it sits and sings fearlessly 

 within a few yards of the observer, every now 



