BLACKCAP 69 



own country, and it is on the whole a very good description ; but 

 I should not say that the blackcap's strain is crude, however wild and 

 irregular it may be ; nor that there is in it even a faint suggestion 

 of the nightingale's. 



In its active, restless habits this warbler resembles the other 

 members of its group ; but it exceeds them all in shyness. 

 When approached it becomes silent, and conceals itself in the 

 interior of the thicket. It frequents woods and orchards ; also 

 hedges and commons where large masses of furze and bramble are 

 found, especially in the vicinity of trees. The nest is made of 

 dry grass, lined with hair or fibrous roots, and is placed in the forked 

 branches of a thick bush, three or four feet above the ground. The 

 eggs, of which five or six are laid, are of a light reddish colour, 

 mottled and blotched with darker red and reddish brown. They 

 vary greatly, both in the depth of colour of the mottliiigs and in the 

 pale ground-tints. 



The blackcap lives on insects, which it often captures on the 

 wing, and on fruits, and is fond of raspberries and currants. Its 

 autumn migration is in September. 



Garden Warbler. 



Sylvia hortensis. 



Upper plumage greyish brown tinged with olive ; below the ear 

 a patch of ash-grey ; throat dull white ; breast and flanks grey 

 tinged w r ith rust colour ; rest of under parts dull white. Length, 

 five and a quarter inches. 



This warbler was first described as a British species by 

 Willughby, more than two centuries ago, under the name of ' pretti- 

 chaps ' ; and Professor Newton, in a note to Yarrell's account of it, 

 says : ' This name (prettichaps) seems never to have been in general 

 use in England, or it would be readily adopted here.' The old 

 name of prettichaps, it may be mentioned, does not appear to be 

 quite obsolete yet : I have heard it in Berkshire, where it was 

 applied indiscriminately to the garden warbler and blackcap. 



The garden warbler is not common anywhere. In Ireland it is 

 scarcely known ; in Scotland, Wales, and a large part of England 

 it is very rare. It is most frequently to be met with in the southern 

 counties, especially in Hampshire. Very curiously, Gilbert White 



