The 



Bl k an The note of tlie bJac ^ ca P has such w we - 

 " ness that it always brings to my mind those lines in 

 a song in " As You Like It" : 



And tune his merry note 

 Unto the wild bird's throat 



The blackcap has, in common, a full, sweet, deep, loud and wild 

 pipe ; yet that strain is of short continuance, and his motions are 

 desultory ; but, when that bird sits calmly and engages in song in 

 earnest, he pours forth very sweet, but inward melody, and ex- 

 presses great variety of soft and gentle modulations, superior, 

 perhaps, to those of any of our warblers, the nightingale excepted. 



Blackcaps mostly haunt orchards and gardens : while they 

 warble, their throats are wonderfully distended. 



In April, in the first fine weather, they come trooping all at once 

 in these parts, but are never seen in the winter. G. W. 



