42 BLACKBIRD— BLACKCAP 



country where it no longer breeds,^ that incredulity as to its boom- 

 ing at all has in some quarters succeeded the old belief in this as 

 in other reputed peculiarities of the species. The Bittern is found 

 from Ireland to Japan, in India, and throughout the ■whole of 

 Africa — suitable localities being, of course, understood. Australia 

 and New Zealand have a kindred species, B. looedloptilus, and North 

 America a third, B. muffitans or B. lentiginosus. The former is said 

 to bellow like a bull, but authoi^ities differ as to the vocal powers 

 of the latter,^ which has several times wandered to Europe, and is 

 distinguishable by its smaller size and uniform greyish -bi'own prim- 

 aries, which want the tawny bars that characterize B. stellaris. 

 Nine other species of Bitterns from various parts of the world are 

 admitted by Schlegel {3fus. P.-B. Ardese, pp. 47-56), but some of 

 them should perhaps be excluded from the genus Botaunis ; on the 

 other hand, Dr. Reichenow (Journ. f. Orn. 1877, pp. 241-251), by 

 comprehending the birds of the Group Arietta, — commonly known 

 as "Little Bitterns," and differing a good deal from the true 

 Bitterns — makes the whole number of species twenty-two. 



BLACKBIRD, the common, but not the most ancient,^ name of 

 the Ousel, the Turdus merula,^ of Linnseus and most ornithologists, 

 one of the best known of British birds ; but since conferred in dis- 

 tant countries on others whose only resemblance to the original 

 bearer lies in their colour, as in North America to several members 

 of the Idericlx (Grackle and Icterus), in the West Indies to the 

 species of Crotophaga (Ani), and perhaps to more in other lands. 

 Occasionally too in translations of Scandinavian works it is used 

 to render Svartfugl — the general name for the Alcidm (Auk) — of 

 which indeed it is an equivalent, but its use in that capacity tends 

 to mistakes. 



BLACKCAP, the Sylvia atriciipilla of ornithology, one of the 

 most delicate songsters of the British Islands, and fortunately of 

 general distribution in summer. To quote the praise bestowed 

 upon it in more than one passage by Gilbert White would be 



^ The last recorded instance of the Bittern breeding in England was in 1868, 

 as mentioned by Stevenson {Birds of Norfolk, ii. p. 164). All the true Bitterns, 

 so far as is known, lay eggs of a light olive-brown colour. 



2 Richardson, a most accurate observer, positively asserts {Fauna, Boreali- 

 Americana, ii. p. 374) that its booming exactly resembles that of its European 

 congener, but few American ornithologists, Mr. Torrey {Auk, 1889, pp. 1-8) 

 excepted, seem to have heard it in perfection. 



^ Its earliest use seems to be in the Book of St. Albans in 1486, where it 

 occurs as "blacke bride." 



■* By some unhappy accident the order of these words is reversed in Dr. 

 Murray's N'ew English Dictionary. The bird has been named Merula atra, but 

 never Merula turdus (as therein stated) by Linnseus or any one else. 



