62 THE BLACK-CAP. 



ORDER PASSERES. 



The Black-Cap. 



Sylvia Atricapilla. LATH. La Fauvette a tete noire. 

 BUFF. 



THIS blythe little bird visits us in the early days 

 of April, and makes our gardens resound with 

 its notes. So sweetly does it sing, that it has 

 sometimes been called the mock nightingale. 

 White describes it as having a full, sweet, deep, 

 loud, and wild pipe, when flitting about from 

 tree to tree ; but he says it is, when calmly seated, 

 heard to the greatest advantage. When pouring 

 forth its full tide of song, it gives out strains of 

 sweet, but inward melody, full of soft and gentle 

 modulations, rivalled only by the nightingale. 

 This tasteful observer of nature adds, that the 

 wild sweetness of the black-cap's note, always 

 brought to his recollection these lines in one of 

 Shakespear^s songs: 



" And tune his merry throat, 

 Unto the wild bird's note." 



The female black-caps do not arrive till a 

 week or two after the male birds. As soon as 



