330 SUMMER. 



we found the nest, containing four young ones quite 

 callow. Upon a single instance, however, it would 

 not be safe to found an opinion, though analogy would 

 lead to the same conclusion that we intended to draw 

 from that case. The eggs of the black-cap are usually 

 five, and they are of three colours, light brown, mot- 

 tled with darker brown, and dotted with minute points 

 nearly black. When the season is favourable, the 

 black-caps rear a second, and sometimes even a third 

 brood ; and when they are deprived of their eggs, they 

 persist in fresh nidifications to a much later period of 

 the season than almost any other of our summer birds. 

 The white-throat (sylvia cinered) may be regarded 

 as the warbler which, after the black-cap, is the most 

 diffused ; and its proper region lies upon the confines 

 of that of the other, not that there is a definite line 

 drawn between them, for it often happens that the 

 same spot is a favourite with them both. But, as the 

 black-cap is a bird of places in a state of demicultiva- 

 tion, the white-throat may be reckoned the visitant of 

 the cultivated lands; its nesting place being among 

 lanes and hedges, or in the little brakes which are 

 sometimes left in the corners of fields. The withered 

 stems of goose grass or cleavers (galium aparine) which 

 are among the most abundant as well as the most 

 manageable dry materials of the season, are chiefly 

 used by the white throat (and, indeed, by most of the 

 warblers) in forming the body of their nests. These 

 are loosely and carelessly put together ; and partially 

 lined with leaves, or with finer leaves or fibres of the 

 true grasses. Generally, however, the materials are 

 found near the nest; and, therefore, the labour of 



