422 SYLVIID/E. 



and some of the islands of the Mediterranean, it frequently 

 winters, and in such localities it would seem to emigrate for 

 the summer. 



In the adult male, the bill is dark horn-colour : the irides 

 dark brown : all the upper part of the head above the eyes 

 jet-black ; nape ash-grey ; back, wings and tail above, ash- 

 brown, the last being barred with a darker shade ; chin, 

 greyish- white ; throat and breast, ash-grey ; belly and lower 

 wing-coverts white ; quills beneath, shining grey : legs and 

 toes lead-colour ; claws brown. 



The whole length five inches and three-quarters. From 

 the carpus to the end of the wing, two inches and three- 

 quarters ; the second primary shorter than the fourth or 

 fifth, but longer than the sixth. 



The female is larger than the male — a thing very remark- 

 able among birds of this family, measuring six inches and 

 one-quarter ; the top of the head reddish-brown, and the 

 rest of the plumage more tinged with brown than in the 

 male. 



Young birds resemble the adult female, but the hood is 

 not so conspicuous : the males, of the earlier broods cer- 

 tainly, put on the black cap and grey mantle before leaving 

 this country, but they are said not to acquire the white 

 belly till after their second summer. It would, singularly 

 enough, seem that in winter some if not all of the males 

 lose their black caps, and have their heads coloured like 

 those of the females. A few of them even reappear in Europe 

 in this guise, and hence has originated the supposed species, 

 Sylvia ruhricapilla of Landbek (Yog. Wlirtemb. p. 44) ; 

 but the matter requires fuller investigation. 



olive-gi'een on the back, and wants the barring on tlie tail above. The islanders 

 believe that when there are more than four eggs in a Blackcap's nest one of them 

 always produces a bird moi-e or less of this colour. The hen does not seem to lie 

 aflfected in like manner. 



