NATURE'S CAROL SINGERS. 



The nest is a flimsy structure placed 

 at varying heights from two to ten or 

 twelve feet above the ground in brambles, 

 nettles, briar, and thorn bushes, privet 

 and other hedges. It is composed of 

 straws, fibrous roots, and dead grass, 

 frequently intermixed with cobwebs, and 

 lined with hair. 



The eggs number five or six, and may 

 be divided into two types of coloration. 

 In one they are of a greyish-white ground 

 colour suffused with bumsh-brown and 

 spotted, blotched, and marbled with dark 

 brown, similar to those of the Garden 

 Warbler. In the other they are of a 

 pale brick-red or crimson hue marked 

 with deep reddish-brown. 



This bird is one of our finest feathered 

 melodists. Gilbert White was greatly 

 in love with its vocal powers, and in his 

 third letter to Daines Barrington says 

 that the " wild sweetness of its song re- 

 minded him of Shakespeare's lines in 

 As You Like It : 



" And tune his merry note 

 Unto the wild bird's throat." 



In Letter XL. to Pennant, he says, 

 " The Blackcap has a full, sweet, deep, 

 loud and wild pipe ; yet that strain is 

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