no THE RIVER-SIDE NATURALIST. 



forth very sweet and inward melody, and expresses great 

 variety of soft and gentle modulations, superior perhaps 

 to those of any of our warblers, the nightingale alone 

 excepted." And, like the nightingale, the black-cap ceases 

 to sing as soon as the young are hatched. But you have 

 moved, and the bird has disappeared, and instead of the 

 song comes the alarm-note, Sharr-sharr. Had you put 

 your binocular upon him you would have found that the 

 feathers on the top of the head are jet black, which can be 

 raised as a crest ; the nape of the neck ashy-grey ; the 

 back, wings, and tail a brownish-grey ; throat and breast 

 a light grey ; under-parts white, as also are the under 

 wing-coverts ; legs a bluish lead-colour ; the whole length 

 of the bird between five and six inches. Female some- 

 what larger than the male, and the top of the head reddish- 

 brown instead of black. The black-cap generally arrives 

 in this country about the middle of April, and leaves us 

 again in September. 



In Guernsey the black-cap is commonly known as the 

 Guernsey Nightingale. 



THE WHEAT-EAR. 



Another of the Sylviidce often met with on moorland 

 streams is the WHEAT-EAR or FALLOW-CHAT (Saxicola 

 cenanthe), easily recognised as he flits away from stone 

 to stone by the large white spot above the tail. The bird 

 in the south often goes by the name of the Fallow-Chat, 

 from its frequenting the upland fallows in search of food. 

 It is a very early visitant, arriving in this country in the 

 latter end of February or beginning of March, and stays 

 till the end of September. On our southern downs the 

 shepherds catch the birds by means of a horsehair snare 

 placed under a sod of earth, formed into a hollow chamber, 

 the bird having the habit on the least alarm even a 

 shadow from a passing cloud of running into the first 

 hiding-place it can find. Faber notices this in his " Ascent 

 of Helvellyn:" 



