48 ' BLACKCAP. 



and Mayo ; while in winter its presence has been recorded several 

 times, especially in the south. 



From Scandinavia below 66° N. lat., the Blackcap is found breed- 

 ing in every country of Europe, as well as in North Africa and 

 Palestine ; in fact, allowing for migration of individuals, the Black 

 cap appears to be a resident species in the basin of the Medi- 

 terranean. In the Cape Verd Islands a form breeds in January, 

 but later in the Canaries. In Madeira and the Azores, where it 

 appears to be resident, a variety with much more black on the 

 head and shoulders of the male bird is not unfrequent. Its winter 

 migrations have been traced to the Gambia, Abyssinia, and the Red 

 Sea ; Omsk in Siberia being its somewhat doubtful eastern limit. 



The small but tolerably compact nest, built of dry grasses and 

 lined with horsehair, is generally placed a few feet from the ground 

 among bushes; a privet hedge being rather a favourite site. The 

 4-5 eggs, laid from May 9th onwards, are sometimes light yellowish- 

 brown blotched with a darker shade (like those of the Garden- 

 Warbler, though a little smaller ; ) in another variety the ground- 

 colour and the blotches are suffused with a beautiful reddish hue : 

 measurements 73 by "58 in. Two broods are reared in the season, 

 and the male takes his turn at incubation, chiefly in the daytime. 

 The food consists of insects, often taken on the wing ; berries of 

 the rowan, elder, &c. ; and fruit, especially raspberries and red- 

 currants, for the sake of which the nest is often placed in or near 

 orchards and gardens. In the south the bird also pecks figs and 

 oranges, and eats the berries of the pepper-tree. 



Adult male: upper part of the head jet-black; nape ash grey ; 

 back, wings and tail ash-brown ; chin greyish-white ; throat, breast 

 and flanks ash grey ; belly white ; bill horn-brown ; legs and feet 

 lead-colour. Length 575 : wing to the end of the third and 

 longest quill 275 in. The female, which is somewhat larger, 

 has the top of the head bright reddish-brown, and the rest of 

 the plumage is browner than in the male. The young at first 

 resemble the female, but the males acquire the black head, with 

 merely brownish margins, during the first autumn. 



It has been stated that in winter adult males assume the plumage 

 of the females ; but I have seen hundreds of birds with black heads 

 in the markets of Southern Europe at that season ; and Mr. John 

 Young, who kept a pair of Blackcaps alive for four years, assures 

 me that the male never changes colour after the first autumn moult. 

 In spring some, if not all, of the tail-feathers are said to be renewed, 

 but Mr. Young states that this is not his experience. 



