70 The Blackcap. 



woods, where the removal of the trees has pennitted the wild blackberry, brionv, 

 convolvulus and many other things to sprawl over one another in profusion, 

 rendering progression ruinous to clothing, I have often come across the nest of 

 this bird : such clearings may either be on the outskirts or some distance within 

 a wood. In the former case they are only separated from the main road by 

 a hedge, or terminate in a steep bank running downwards to the thorough- 

 fare ; in the latter case, they adjoin a rough cart road cut through the 

 wood. Little accidental clearings, entered by "blind"* keeper's paths, are also 

 very favourite sites for the nest of this bird. The structure is very strongly 

 built (though sometimes the walls are not very thick) and it is firml_v attached 

 to the stems of hawthorn, bramble, or other low-growing vegetation in which it 

 is located. In form it is a neatly rounded cup, with walls externally composed 

 of fine dry tough grass, more rarely with an admixture of straw, internally of 

 fine grass, root-fibre and horsehair ; the outside is sometimes interwoven with a 

 little moss and alwaj-s strengthened and bound to the supporting twigs b}' 

 woollen thread or silk from the cocoons of some spider or caterpillar : in some 

 nests, however, this thread is very scant}^ and can only be detected by carefully 

 examining them with a lens, whereas in others it gives the outer walls a fluffy 

 appearance to the naked eye. 



The eggs vary in number from four to five ; in size they are tolerably 

 uniform, those of young birds being slightl}- smaller than those deposited by 

 older individuals : in colouring the}' exhibit considerable variability ; so much so 

 that the tyro, unacquainted with the bird itself, its habits, or its nest, might 

 take specimens which, by comparison with imperfect illustrations, he would 

 perchance identify as those of the Garden Warbler, Greater Whitethroat, Spotted 

 Flycatcher and Titlark : even the experienced birds'-nester unless aware of the 

 different character of the structures formed by the two species might hesitate in 

 deciding between some eggs of the Blackcap and those of the Garden Warbler. 

 The ground-tint of the eggs is either chalky white, greenish white, pale buff, 

 brownish buff, or flesh pink ; the surface is more or less densely- spotted, 

 blotched and streaked with soft greyish olive, earth-brown, smoky brown, or (in 

 the pink eggs) dull mahogany red, giving the egg the appearance of having been 

 smeared with blood ; above these again are sprinkled little spots and thread-like 

 lines of black, or black-brown, often placed in the centre of a patch of the paler 

 colouring which they serve to intensify. 



The flesh-coloured variety, which somewhat vaguel}' resembles the egg of the 

 Spotted Flycatcher, is rare ; the only two nests purely of this type which I ever 



* That is to say, loug disused and overgrown with moss aud weeds. 



