?o BRITISH BIRDS, WITH THEIR NESTS AND EGGS. 



Mediterranean basin it has been obtained at all seasons. Its winter range is 

 supposed to extend westward to Senegal and Gambia, and eastward to Nubia 

 and Abyssinia ; in the Cape Verd Islands, Madeira, the Canaries and Azores 

 it is apparently resident. 



In Great Britain this species is somewhat local, but pretty generally 

 distributed. 



The general colouring of the upper parts of the Blackcap in breeding 

 plumage is smoky grey, the upper part of the head jet-black ; the edges of 

 the wing and tail feathers brownish ; under parts ash-grey, paler on the chin, 

 the centre of abdomen, axillaries and under wing-coverts white ; bill dark horn 

 brown, feet leaden grey, iris hazel. The female chiefly differs from the male 

 in its rufous brown cap and generally somewhat browner colouring. The 

 young male in its first plumage resembles the female, but acquires the black 

 cap in the autumn without a moult. Both sexes of the adult birds are said 

 to become somewhat browner after their autumn moult, but I have proved 

 that the male retains its black cap throughout the year, a fact also attested 

 by Mr. John Young (Vide Howard Saunders' Manual p. 48.) 



Although partially resident in this country, most of the pairs which breed 

 with us arrive from Africa about the middle of April, and leave us again in 

 September. 



The Blackcap is a bird which delights in wild dense uncultivated land, 

 almost impenetrable thickets, tangled hedges, plantations where hawthorn 

 bushes alternate with straggling brambles, nettles, and honeysuckle vines ; even 

 in badly kept gardens, where roses have run riot among the shrubs : in such 

 spots it builds its neat and strongly constructed nest. In the clearings of the 

 Kentish woods, where the removal of the trees has permitted the wild black- 

 berry, briony, convolvulus and many other things to sprawl over one another 

 in profusion, rendering progression ruinous to clothing, I have often come 

 across the nest of this bird : such clearings may either be on the outskirts 

 or some distance within a wood. In the former case they are only separated 

 from the main road by a hedge, or terminate in a steep bank running 

 downwards to the thoroughfare ; in the latter case, the}' adjoin a rough cart 

 road cut through the wood. Little accidental clearings, entered by ' blind '* 

 keeper's paths, are also very favourite sites for the nest of this bird. The 

 structure is very strongly built (though sometimes the walls are not very 

 thick) and it is firmly attached to the stems of hawthorn, bramble, or other 

 low-growing vegetation in which it is located. In form it is a neatly rounded 



* That is to say, long disused and overgrown with moss and weeds. 



