THE RETURN OF THE BIRDS 51 



provision they require, that is seclusion. Their 

 shy and retiring habits teach them to search out 

 dense retreats, and hence they are rarely seen, and for 

 the same reason, perhaps, it is that the nest is so 

 difficult to find. If observed on the confines of its 

 corral of boughs, the bird immediately begins to 

 perform a series of evolutions, until it has managed 

 to place a dense screen of brushwood between itself 

 and the observer. When procuring its food it is 

 extremely active. If watched with the aid of a 

 glass it may be seen restlessly flitting from branch 

 to branch in search of insects. But it by no means 

 confines itself to these. Of the smaller fruits it is 

 extremely fond, and it devours numbers of small 

 green caterpillars. If the black-cap warbler is 

 partial to the berries of the elder, ivy, and currant, 

 it has an immense set-off in the larvae of injurious 

 insects which it destroys. To secure some of the 

 berries and wild fruit of which it is so fond, it 

 supports itself in the air, its wings vibrating the 

 while. The song, to which I have already alluded, 

 is rich, deep and mellow, and the bird sings by night 

 as well as by day. 



