52 THE BLACK-CAP. 



descriptions of the habits of. birds and animals, 

 speaking of the black-cap, says his " note has such 

 a wild sweetness that it always brings to my mind 

 those lines in a song in Shakspeare's *As You 

 Like It:' — 



' And tune his merry note 

 Unto the sweet bird's throat.'" 



And I have no doubt in my own mind that Shak- 

 speare was listening to the singing of the black-cap, 

 or called to memory his notes, as he had often heard 

 them when a boy in the green fields that spread 

 around his native place, when he composed that 

 beautiful and simple song which begins with, — 



" Under the greenwood tree, 

 Who loves to lie with me." 



The back and wings of the black-cap are of an 

 olive gray, throat and breast of a silvery gray, belly 

 and vent white, sides of the head and back of the 

 neck ash color, and the top of head black as night, 

 whence the name. Caged, he requires the same 

 food as all soft-bill birds, with the addition of 

 elderberries, of which he is very fond. The black- 

 cap, and most of the genus, suffer from tender feet, 

 and swellings or warts upon them : a little cold 

 cream will soon cure these. 



