The Blackcap. 69 



Faviily— TURD ID. ^. Subfamily SYL VIIN^. 



The Blackcap. 



Sylvia atricapilla, LiNN. 



THIS delightful songster is generally distributed throughout Europe, breeding 

 in every country from Scandinavia below 66° N. lat., and extending its 

 range southwards to North Africa, south-eastwards to Asia Minor and 

 Palestine, and also through the Caucasus to Western Persia. In the Mediter- 

 ranean basin it has been obtained at all seasons. Its winter range is supposed 

 to extend westward to Senegal and Gambia, and eastward to Nubia and Ab3'ssinia; 

 in the Cape Verde Islands, Madeira, the Canaries and Azores it is apparently 

 resident. 



In Great Britain this species is somewhat local, but pretty generally 

 distributed. 



The general colouring of the upper parts of the Blackcap in breeding 

 plumage is smoky-grey, the upper part of the head jet-black ; the edges of the 

 wing and tail feathers brownish ; under parts ash-grey, paler on the chin, the 

 centre of abdomen, axillaries and under wing-coverts white; bill dark horn brown; 

 feet leaden grey, iris hazel. The female chiefly differs from the male in its 

 rufous brown cap and generally somewhat browner colouring. The young male 

 in its first plumage resembles the female, but acquires the black cap in the 

 autumn without a moult. Both sexes of the adult birds are said to become 

 somewhat browner after their autumn moult, but I have proved that the male 

 retains its black cap throughout the year, a fact also attested by Mr. John Young 

 (Vide Howard Saunders' Manual, p. 48). 



Although partially resident in this country, most of the pairs which breed 

 with us arrive from Africa about the middle of April, and leave us again in 

 September. 



The Blackcap is a bird which delights in wild dense uncultivated land, 

 almost impenetrable thickets, tangled hedges, plantations where hawthorn bushes 

 alternate with straggling brambles, nettles, and honeysuckle vines ; even in badly 

 kept gardens, where roses have run riot among the shrubs : in such spots it 

 builds its neat and strongly constructed nest. In the clearings of the Kentish 



