48 BLACKCAP. 



In the Cape-Verd Islands it breeds in January, but it is later in the 

 Canaries. In Madeira and the Azores, where it appears to be 

 resident, a variety with much more black on the head and shoulders 

 of the male bird is not unfrequent. Its winter migrations have 

 been traced to the Gambia, Abyssinia and the Red Sea ; Omsk in 

 Siberia being its somewhat doubtful eastern limit at any season. 



The small but tolerably compact nest, built of dry grasses and 

 lined with horsehair, is generally placed a few feet from the ground, 

 among bushes ; a privet hedge being rather a favourite site. The 

 eggs, 4-5, are sometimes light yellowish-brown blotched with a 

 darker shade, resembling those of the Garden Warbler, although a 

 little smaller ; in another variety the ground-colour and the blotches 

 are suffused with a beautiful reddish hue : average measurements 

 '73 by '58 in. Two broods are reared in the season, and the male 

 takes his turn at incubation. The food consists of insects, often 

 taken on the wing ; rowan-, elder- and other berries ; and fruit, 

 especially raspberries and red-currants, for the sake of which the 

 nest is often placed in or near orchards and gardens. In the south 

 the bird also eats figs, oranges, and the berries of the pepper-tree. 



Adult male : upper part of the head jet-black ; nape ash-grey ; 

 back, wings and tail ash-brown ; chin greyish-white ; throat, breast 

 and flanks ash-grey ; belly white ; bill horn-brown ; legs and 

 feet lead-colour. Length 575 : wing to the end of the 3rd and 

 longest quill 275 in. The female has the top of the head bright 

 reddish-brown and the remainder of the plumage browner than in 

 the male. The young at first resemble the female, but the males 

 acquire the black head, with merely brownish margins, during the 

 first autumn. 



It has been stated that in winter the males assume the plumage 

 of the females ; but I have seen hundreds of birds with black heads 

 in the markets of Southern Europe at that season ; and Mr. John 

 Young, who has kept a pair of Blackcaps alive for four years, assures 

 me that the male never changes colour after the first autumn 

 moult. In spring some, if not all, of the tail-feathers are said to be 

 renewed, but Mr. Young states that this is not his experience. 



