BLACKCAP WARBLER. 93 



bring up the young nightingales, which for some time after- 

 wards were observed flying about in the vicinity of their birth- 

 place. In September, however, in obedience to their migratory 

 instincts, they quitted their northern home, to which they never 

 returned. Perhaps they were right. 



THE BLACKCAP WARBLER. 



CURRUCA ATRICAPILLA. 



THIS species, though nowhere numerous, appears to be widely dis- 

 tributed from near Cape Wrath to the shores of the Solway. In 

 the intervening districts, especially those where leafy woods and 

 roadside thickets are sufficiently sheltered for the encouragement 

 of bird-life, the Blackcap is a well-known and welcome summer 

 visitant. Being a bird of comparatively hardy constitution, it 

 does not seem so anxious about leaving us at the end of the season 

 as other migratory warblers, which observe the dates of their 

 arrival and departure with some regularity, and we consequently 

 find it flitting about among the half-withered leaves long after 

 signs of winter have appeared. The lateness of its stay is no 

 doubt owing to the circumstance of its feeding on autumn fruits, 

 such as rowans and elder berries, when insect prey is no longer to 

 be obtained. It has even been observed and procured so late as 

 the 8th of November, in Caithness, the most northerly county in 

 the Scottish mainland. At a meeting of the Royal Physical 

 Society of Edinburgh, held on 22d January, 1862, Dr Smith exhi- 

 bited two specimens which had been shot near Wick by the late 

 Mr H. Osborne, a male on the 1 6th October, and a female on the 

 28th, respecting which the following notes were contributed by 

 Mr Osborne. After referring to the late stay of the birds in a 

 district so far north in Britain, he thus proceeds: " With the 

 exception that the male was not in song, both birds were as active 

 and lively as they are described to be in midsummer, and both 

 too were in perfect plumage. I have observed, in cases where the 

 swallow has prolonged its stay with us until far on in the season, 

 that there was ,an evident lack of that liveliness, vigour, and power 

 of flight displayed, for instance, in the month of June; but no 

 such peculiarity was observable in the Blackcaps. This, for the 

 most part, perhaps, may be owing to the fact that the Blackcap, 



