THE BLACKCAP. 



with a confused and hurried flight, indicative of 

 fear ; while the kite moves steadily from the summit 

 of the loftiest oak, the scathed crest of the highest 

 poplar, or the most elevated ash circles round and 

 round, sedate and calm, and then leaves us. I can 

 confusedly remember a very extraordinary capture 

 of these birds when I was a boy. Roosting one 

 winter evening on some very lofty elms, a fog 

 came on during the night, which froze early in the 

 morning, and fastened the feet of the poor kites so 

 firmly to the boughs, that some adventurous youths 

 brought down, I think, fifteen of them, so secured ! 

 Singular as the capture was, the assemblage of so 

 large a number was not less so, it being in general 

 a solitary bird, or associating only in pairs. 



The blackcap (motacilla atracapilla) is our con- 

 stant visitor, but very uncertain in its numbers, as 

 it fully participates in all the casualties of our 

 migratory tribes ; not by any great diminution 

 probably in its winter residence, but by loss in its 

 transits of autumn or spring. We have years 

 when every little copse resounds with harmony ; at 

 other periods only a few solitary songsters are to 

 be heard ; and the blackcap is the principal per- 

 former in the band of our domestic vocalists. In 

 the scale of music it is the third for mellowness, and 

 the third perhaps, too, for execution and compass. 

 As this melody, however, continues only during the 

 period of incubation, we hear it but for a short 

 time ; for this bird wastes no time in amusements, 

 appearing to be in great haste to accomplish the 



