202 NATURAL HISTORY 



tame redbreast in a cage that always sang as long as 

 candles were in the room; but in their wild state no 

 one supposes they sing in the night. 



The Blackcap, (Curruca Atricapilla, BECHST.) Of all the birds that 

 reside in or visit the British islands, there is none that can come up to 

 the present for song, except the nightingale ; and by some persons it is 

 more admired than even that bird. Its earliest arrival in Ihis country is 

 generally about the first week in April, and the earliest that ever I saw 

 was on the 25th of March : they leave us again about the end of Septem- 

 ber ; sometimes a straggling one may be seen the beginning of October ; 

 the latest I ever saw in a wild state was on the 15th of that month. When 

 it first arrives in this country, its chief food is the early ripened berries 

 of the ivy; and where those are, there the blackcaps are first to be heard, 

 singing their melodious and varied song. By the time the ivy berries are 

 over, the little green larvae of the small moths will be getting plentiful, 

 rolled up in the young shoots and leaves ; these then become their chief 

 food, until the strawberries and cherries are ripe : after that, there is no 

 want of fruit or berries till their return, and there is no sort of fruit or 

 berry that is eatable, or wholesome, that they will refuse. After they 

 have cleared the elder-berries in autumn, they immediately leave us. 



This is certainly by far the most desirable of all birds for the cage, and 

 there is none that can be more easily kept ; their general food is the same 

 as that for the other birds already mentioned, bruised hempseed and bread, 

 with some fresh, lean, raw meat mixed up in it ; they do not even refuse 

 a bit of fat, and a little yolk of egg: occasionally a few insects may be 

 given, particularly if the birds appear not well ; now and then a fly, a 

 green or brown caterpillar from a cabbage, or a spider : they care very 

 little for insects if they have plenty of fruit, and other changes of food ; 

 although, like other birds of this tribe, they are particularly fond of the 

 larva in the wasp and hornet combs*. 



* The blackcaps are very vivacious in a cage, if well taken care of. 

 Milk, which Mr. Sweet recommends, I have found very fatal to many of 

 the soft billed birds, and I never give it ; but the blackcaps do not seem 

 to suffer from itf. They are very fond of a boiled carrot mashed and 

 moistened, or beet root boiled and mashed. A boiled carrot will keep 

 fresh many days in a basin of cold water, and is an excellent substitute 

 for fruit in feeding them. Boiled cabbage, cauliflower, and green peas, 

 are good for them : as well as all sorts of puddings. A very little roast 

 meat minced, I give them every day ; and a little yolk of egg when it 

 suits, but it is not necessary. The standard food is hempseed ground in a 

 coffee mill, and bread crumbs scalded and mashed up together, and fresh 

 every day. They are very fond of ripe pears and elder-berries (but elder- 

 berries stain the cage very much), currants, cherries, honeysuckle, and 

 privet berries. W. H. 



t I have more than once given the blackcap and other birds a little 

 milk by way of medicine, when they appeared drooping or sickly, and 

 with manifest advantage. RENNIE. 



