40 HILLSIDE, ROCK, AND DALE 



seemed to choose the thick undergrowth, making his 

 nest near the ground. The blackcap is a merry 

 bird, always singing, even while sitting. I once saw 

 a male blackcap building his nest. He was turning 

 round and round, working the grasses into shape 

 with his breast and body, and fluttering his wings, 

 but all the time he was singing as merrily as though 

 it were his early morning song. I stood watching 

 this happy little worker and suddenly he saw me. 

 His whole behaviour changed; he ceased his song, 

 slinked off the nest, and strange to say never returned 

 to complete it, although I did not so much as touch 

 the bush in which he was building. The male is 

 often seen sitting during the day, and soon after 

 I photographed the nest pictured here, he returned, 

 hopped into it, " worked " himself into a comfortable 

 position, and seemed to be thoroughly at home. 



Many warblers, especially the whitethroat and 

 garden-warbler, build more nests than they really 

 have need of. Sometimes these arc only just com- 

 menced and then abandoned ; at other times they 

 are nearly finished. The garden-warbler makes at 

 least one of these curious extra nests nearly every 

 time of nest-building. A great many birds make 

 these additional nests ; I have found one on two 

 occasions within a yard of nightingales' nests con- 

 taining eggs. The reed-warbler often makes a rough 

 nest in the same clump of reeds in which its proper 



