178 



NATURAL HISTORY 



Blackcaps mostly haunt orchards and gardens: while 

 they warble, their throats are wonderfully distended. 



The son^ of the redstart is superior, though some- 

 what like that of the whitethroat : some birds have a 

 few more notes than others. Sitting very placidly on 

 the top of a tall tree in a village, the cock sings from 

 morning to night: he affects neighbourhoods, and avoids 

 solitude, and loves to build in orchards and about 

 houses ; with us he perches on the vane of a tall may- 

 pole. 



The flycatcher is of all our summer birds the most 

 mute and the most familiar; it also appears the last of 



till I came close to it, when I perceived that there were a pair exactly 

 alike in colour and size. They were not in the least shy, but sat very 

 still either on a low branch of an oak tree, or on some part of the fence, 

 and were quite mute. I remained examining them above a quarter of an 

 hour, being at times very close to them. It was in the month of May, at 

 which time the foliage was thin in the hedges, and very little on the oaks. 

 They were undoubtedly breeding in the neighbourhood, but I left the 

 country the next morning and could not investigate their habits any fur- 

 ther. There were gardens at a very short distance from the spot where 

 I saw them. I propose to call the species Sylvia (or rather Cwruca) 

 Bidehensis.W. H. 



KAST WOOPHAY WARBLER. 



