180 The Naturalist in Siluria. 



I hear the blackcap singing while I write, and through 

 my window see the bird itself flitting about from tree to 

 tree; for it is a restless creature, and does not remain long 

 in one place, usually running over the whole of its gamut 

 scale but twice or thrice, then betaking itself to some 

 other perch, and there in similar manner repeating it. 

 There are occasions, however, as the naturalist of Sel- 

 borne quaintly expresses it, when " that bird sits calmly, 

 and engages in song in earnest," its strain being un- 

 doubtedly one of the sweetest. No verbal or written 

 description could come nearer giving an idea of it than 

 that of White himself, his phrase " inward melody " 

 having a peculiar and characteristic significance. While 

 it is singing there is a muscular dilatation of throat, and 

 erection of the crown feathers, forming a very dis- 

 tinguishable crest. Just now (last week of April) the 

 blackcap is heard more frequently than later on, and 

 oftener seen. When the trees are in full leaf, it is diffi- 

 cult to get sight of the bird, even when it is pouring 

 forfch its strain but a few feet from the spot where one 

 may be standing. 



NINE REDBREASTS IN ONE BROOD. 



The singular ornithological fact which is elsewhere re- 

 ferred to is that of a pair of robins having brought forth 

 nine young at the same hatching. The place of nesting was 

 in the parish of Walford, near Ross, Herefordshire, and 

 there was enough singularity in the time, the birds being 

 out of the shell early in March. But nine of them, when 

 the orthodox number is five, may seem something still more 



