SYLVIADZ. 105 
for, in spite of the severe weather in March, I 
noticed some arrivals much earlier than usual. It 
leaves us again in September, though Yarrell says 
there are instances of its being obtained and heard 
in the neighbourhood of London, Bristol, and other 
western localities in winter; and an instance is men- 
tioned, in the ‘Zoologist’ for 1866, of a female 
Blackcap being shot in Ireland in December. 
The food of the Blackcap is varied: on its first 
arrival it feeds greedily on ivy-berries, but it after- 
wards forsakes this food for insects,* small cater- 
pillars, chrysalids and occasionally worms: to these 
may be added certain fruits, particularly cherries, 
elder-berries and blackberries.+ 
_ The nest is placed in low bushes and shrubs and 
brambles ; it is formed of grass and fine roots, woven 
together with a little hair or wool and lined with 
hair. 
The beak of the? Blackcap is dark horn-colour ; 
irides dark brown; the whole of the upper part of 
the head is black, whence its name; sides of the 
throat and ear-coverts grey; all the upper parts are 
grey, with a slight tinge of pale olive-green; the 
quills brownish grey; tail the same; throat and all 
the under parts white, with a tinge of grey darkest 
on the breast; legs and toes lead-colour; claws 
* Montagu’s Dictionary, by Newman. 
+ Meyer's ‘ British Birds,’ vol.i., p 104. 
