THE BIRDS OF THE WOODS 



Blackcap. 



■ 



i V . 



year the hedge-sparrow lives mainly on spiders, and beetles and other insects, but 

 in autumn and spring almost entirely on small seeds. The song much resembles 

 that of the wren, but is not so powerful : it is uttered when the bird is perching 

 on the top of a bush or small tree; the hedge-sparrow being hardly ever seen 

 on large trees. 



With the blackcap (Sylvia atricapilla) we come to a regular 

 bird-of-passage, which travels by night like its relatives, and arrives 

 in Europe during April, to leave again in September. It jirefers thick bushes and 



the tops of fairly large 

 _ trees, and is found in 



forests where there is 

 plenty of underwood, in 

 plantations, and gardens 

 with trees, as well as in 

 hedges with trees close by. 

 In such places it nests in 

 the end of April or begin- 

 ning of May, and for the 

 second time at the end of 

 June. The young birds 

 are much attached to one 

 another, and keep in com- 

 pany in covert for a long 

 time after being fledged, 

 waiting to be fed by their 

 parents, and anxiously flut- 

 tering into the bushes when 

 frightened. With head bent 

 the blackcap hops through 

 the bushes, and, when its 

 attention is attracted by 

 anything, it bristles its 

 head-feathers and wags its 

 tail. It is continually 

 looking for food, suns 



the blackcap. Uself in the morning, lives 



in harmony with other 

 birds, and is by no means shy with man. Its food includes all kinds of insects 

 and berries, particularly raspberries and red currants ; and its song rivals that of 

 the nightingale, and is longer and more varied, but not so characteristic, as it 

 includes many^ turns and trills that seem to be imitated from other birds. The 

 blackcap is resident in the warmer parts of England, and in certain districts 

 of the Continent, and is known all over Europe up to Lapland, and in Asia Minor 

 and the Caucasus, as well as in western Asia generally, as far as 70° E. longitude, 

 the winter being spent in northern Africa, ranging down to Senegambia on the 

 west coast. 



