THE BLACKCAP. 375 



If allowed to run about the room, a pine bough, or a grating 

 with several perches, should be placed for it in some warm 

 corner ; which it will rarely leave, as it is not fond of hopping 

 about. It is, indeed, a very awkward bird, hopping with its 

 belly almost touching the ground ; and thrives better in a large 

 cage, which may either be of the form of a Nightingale's cage, 

 or bell-shaped. 



Food. The usual food of the Blackcap consists of cater- 

 pillars, flies, moths, and other insects, as well as their larvae, 

 though it sometimes eats cherries, elder-berries, and currants. 



It thrives in confinement on the univeral paste, varied with 

 a few meal worms and ants' eggs. It is a greedy bird, and if 

 allowed the range of the room, soon learns to eat everything 

 that comes to table. It has been known to live from twelve 

 to sixteen years in good health, when fed with wheat-meal, 

 and occasionally a little crushed hemp seed, especially if 

 supplied with red and black elderberries from July to No- 

 vember. The same berries preserved by being dried, and when 

 given to it soaked in water, conduce much to its health in the 

 winter. Autumn is the time when it is generally caught, and 

 a few elderberries and meal worms in the food-trough will 

 soon induce it to eat the food of the aviary. It is fond of 

 bathing, and requires a daily supply of fresh water. 



Breeding. The Blackcap builds in a hedge or bush, and 

 seems to prefer the whitethorn for this purpose. The nest, 

 which is firmly fixed to the bough, and hemispherical, is well 

 built of hard grass-stalks and dry twigs, lined with softer 

 grass-blades, and the hair of various animals. The female lays 

 once, and sometimes twice a year, five or six yellowish white 

 eggs, mottled with a darker shade of yellow, and spotted with 

 brown. The young are fed with caterpillars and moths, or 

 other winged insects ; and the young males, if reared from the 

 nest on bread and milk, not only acquire a very beautiful song 

 of their own, but those also of the Nightingale and Canary. 

 Before the first moulting the males and females are scarcely 

 distinguishable except by the connoisseur, who may be able to 

 detect a shade of difference in the colour of the back and top of 

 the head. Immediately after that period the cap or crest of 

 the male begins to assume its characteristic hue. The best 

 method, however, to determine the sex of the young birds, is 

 to pull out a few of the brown feathers of the head. If they 



