42 BLACK-HEADED BIRDS. 



nape, and back are black. The Bullfinch is very 

 generally diffused, and nests in low trees, dense 

 bushes, or hedgerows. It pairs for life, and is gener- 

 ally to be met feeding in pairs, its food consisting 

 of fruit, seeds, insects, and young buds, in collecting 

 which it frequents garden, copse, and hedgerow rarely, 

 if ever, going to the ground. Its song is trivial, and 

 consists of only a few low notes ; on the other hand, 

 its call-note is a musical, piping, single note, distinct 

 and distinctive. 



STONECHAT 5 inches ; head, neck, and throat black ; 

 sides of neck white ; bill longer, slender, straight, and 

 pointed. A bird of open gorse- lands. Call -note, 

 ' U-tack ! ' 



BLACKCAP 5 inches ; a brilliant songster ; brown above ; 

 gray-breasted ; white below ; pointed bill. The rim of 

 the cap does not descend below the eye nor include 

 the chin as in the Bullfinch. 



BLACKCAP. Plate 21. Length, 5 inches. 

 General colour of upper parts, wings, and tail 

 ashy-brown ; neck and under parts ashy-gray, the 

 latter becoming white on the belly ; head capped 

 with glossy black. Summer migrant. 



Eggs. 4-5, whitish, mottled with ash and light 

 brown, and having a few isolated spots and streaks 

 of dark brown; "73 x "58 inch. There is a variety 

 tinged with red (plate 123). 



Nest. Of dry grass, lined with root-fibres and 

 hair, and placed a few feet from the ground in the 

 fork of a branch of a bush. 



Distribution. Local throughout England and 



