BLACKCAP 



BLACKCAP WARBLER MOCK NIGHTINGALE. 



PLATE CXXI. 



Sylvia atricapilla^ . . PENNANT. JENYNS. LINNAEUS. 

 Motacilla atricafilla, . . MONTAGU. BEWICK. 

 Curruca atricapilla, . . GOULD. 



THE nest, built about the end of May or the beginning 

 of June, is commonly placed in a bramble or other 

 bush, sometimes in a honeysuckle, a raspberry, or currant 

 tree, about two or three feet or rather more from the 

 ground ; a privet-hedge being often selected. It is made 

 of dry grass and small fibrous roots, with occasionally a 

 little moss and hair the latter as a lining, and the outer 

 parts cemented together with spiders' webs and wool. It 

 is strong and tolerably compact, though slight. Anything 

 like meddling with it, or intruding upon it, is jealously 

 watched, and the smallest disturbance causes the nest to 

 be forsaken. Several in fact are frequently abandoned, 

 either from apprehension or caprice, before they have been 

 finished. Prof. Alfred Newton mentions in the Zoologist his 

 having found a nest on the nth of March 1845, which 

 contained an egg at that early date. 



The eggs, usually four or five in number, sometimes 

 six, are of a light brown and grey, with a few spots and 



