THE GARDEN WARBLEE. 155 



song of tlie bird is often uttered. It is especially 

 fond of these berries, so much so that the Italians, 

 among whom it resides constantly, know it by the 

 name of cajponera d'edera, — hedera, or edera, or 

 hedra, being the name of the ivy in several Euro- 

 pean countries. In our own land, when the ivy 

 berries are over, the larvae of various moths and 

 insects are lying rolled up in the young buds of 

 trees and flowers, and there the blackcap finds 

 a meal for itself and young ones until the summer 

 has ripened the fruits. But when the currants 

 glisten from the bough, and the strawberries from 

 the bed, and the glossy clierries are crimsoning 

 among the leaves, our bird knows how to turn to 

 account the care of the gardener, and deliberately 

 helps itself to the very finest and sweetest of the 

 fruits, as if to repay itself for its destruction of the 

 insects which, but for its efforts, might have fed 

 on them instead. There is no sort of fruit or 

 berry which comes amiss to the bird save those 

 which are poisonous ; and Avlien tlie black fruits 

 of the elder- tree appear, the blackcaps find a 

 delightful harvest. When they have cleared the 

 trees of these, they depart to other lands. 



This bird is one of those known as the heccafico, 



