BLACK CAP. 329 



feathers, according as the one or the other is the most 

 accessible. The male shows the greatest attachment 

 to the female, and the greatest solicitude about her 

 comfort and safety. He brings her food, takes her 

 place when she goes abroad for exercise, and when his 

 services are not required in either of those ways, he 

 cheers her with his lively song. Some are of opinion 

 that the males of singing birds sit upon the eggs at 

 that time when they are silent, which is during the 

 heat of the day ; and we rather think that that is the 

 case with the black cap, for we have, during those 

 hours of silence, often started the male from low close 

 bushes, which were very likely to contain nests ; and 

 we have seen the females entering the same places 

 about four or five in the evening, which is just a little 

 before the evening song of the male in the sitting time. 

 There is one point in the domestic economy of those 

 birds that are attached to each other in pairs, and sit 

 alternately, which we have taken some trouble to ascer- 

 tain, but have never been able to come to a satisfactory 

 conclusion, and that is, " In the case of any casualty 

 happening to the female after the sitting has been 

 begun, does the male continue the incubation to its 



O ' 



completion, and rear the brood ?" We know that 

 some female birds rear their broods in a state of widow- 

 hood, because we have seen at least one unequivocal 

 instance in a female skylark, where the pair were the 

 only ones in the field, and the male was killed by a 

 hawk. In the case of a black-cap we once watched a 

 bush, out of which -a male bird used to issue at various 

 times of the day, but near which we never saw a 

 female ; and after we had observed it for about a week, 

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