LESSER WHITETHROAT. ' 17 



of Clitheroe, avers that he has always found it nestino; 

 in that neighbourhood during the last thirty years, and 

 at present it breeds there everywhere in suitable 

 localities. Near Chipping also, Mr, John Weld informs 

 me that it breeds commonly, the nests being in brambles, 

 thickets by the road-side, &c. ; one was composed 

 entirely of different dried grasses, without moss or wool, 

 but intermixed with the grass fibres were small quanti- 

 ties of spiders' webs. The inside was exclusively lined 

 with hair, and had six eggs. He also says that the 

 bird seems rather partial to hazel-bushes, hence being 

 called the " Hazel-Linnet." A little further west, a 

 few nests, according to Mr. E. Standen, are seen each 

 3'ear near Haighton and Grimsargh, and this is so, too, 

 about Grange and Leek and in the district south and 

 south-east of. Manchester, but elsewhere this species 

 appears to be very rare, though Mr. J. E. Palmer 

 writes me that he observed it near Todmorden in the 

 spring of 1874. At Pleasington, in 1881, Mr. R. J. 

 Howard saw the first nest he had come across in that 

 district. The eggs, five or six in number, are laid the 

 end of May, and the nest is more compactly built than 

 is the case with the other Warblers. 



BLACKCAP. 



Sylvia atricapilla (Linnpeus). 



A summer visitor ; not appearing till the end of April 

 or beginning of Ma}^ and leaving in September. It is 

 very evenly distributed over almost the whole of the 

 county, but is nowhere common, and one or two pairs 

 would probably be as many as could be found in any 

 particular district. Near Liverpool it is rare, and at 



c 



