376 INSECTI VOILE. 



ence, for though there are now more professed students of 

 birds, the country people, from more constant labour and 

 other changes of habit, study them less than in former 

 times ; and so, if they had existed, they would have got 

 names as well as the other birds. The white-throat has 

 been " Charlie Muftie," and the hedge warbler the " white 

 wren," in the midland parts of Scotland, from time anterior 

 to record ; and there is no doubt that, if the garden warbler 

 had frequented that country in the olden time, its more 

 enchanting notes would have won it a name, especially ID a 

 land not unknown to song. There is little question that this 

 delicious songster has now penetrated to the warm glens in 

 the southern verge of the Grampians; and so the folks of 

 Scotland may make sure that they have only to cultivate 

 away till they deserve the nightingale, and they shall have 

 him and more and better. 



THE BLACK-CAP WARBLER (CuTTUCa at 



The black-cap warbler is one of our most delightful song- 

 sters ; and it is more abundant, more generally distributed, 

 more hardy, and less exclusively insectivorous, ttan some of 

 those which are very inferior in song. The male black-cap is 

 barely six inches in length, and about eight and three-quarters 

 in the stretch of the wings, and it weighs barely half an 

 ounce ; the female is fully six in length, and nine in breadth, 

 and weighs a little more than half an ounce ; but as the 

 birds range over a variety of soils, and are both reared and 

 subsequently fed on pastures of varied productiveness, they 

 are subject to considerable variations, both in weight and 

 dimensions. I believe it will in general be found that the 

 bird of the poorer pasture is lighter and longer in the wings. 

 It is a general law, that where an extra production of ap- 

 pendage to the cuticle is required in the same species of 

 animal, there is more than a corresponding diminution in the 



