THE BLACK-CAP WARBLER. 377 



quantity of flesh, yielded by an equal and equally nutritious 

 species of food. It has been already noticed that heat has a 

 tendency to produce those appendages ; and thus the exer- 

 tion of flying tends, in some measure, to produce or enlarge 

 the instruments of flight. 



The black-cap warbler is a bird of sober attire : the male 

 has the head, from the forehead to the occiput, dull black ; 

 the rest of the upper part grey, with a tinge of dull blackish- 

 green ; the throat and breast grey, and the rest of the under 

 part pale ash grey. The bill is bluish-brown, the irides dark 

 hazel, and the naked parts leaden-grey. The quills and tail- 

 feathers are inclining to dusky, relieved with dull greenish 

 on the margins. The female has the head reddish brown, 

 and the general tint of the plumage darker, and more in- 

 clining to green than the male. The young of both sexes, 

 when first fledged, resemble the female. 



The nest is near the ground, in hedges, bushes, brakes, or 

 tufts, formed loosely of dry vegetable fibres, and lined with 

 the same, and often with a few long hairs. The eggs are 

 four or five in number, pale reddish-brown, rather obscurely 

 marked with a deeper shade of the same colour and with 

 grey ; but their colour, as well as the material of the nest, is 

 subject to variation. The young black-caps are said to leave 

 the nest sooner than most other birds of the order, and they 

 and the old ones roost for some times afterwards on the same 

 perch. 



Hedges, copses, bushes, and trees, but not the depth of 

 forests, are the favourite haunts of the black-cap. It seldom 

 comes till towards the end of April, and is soon dispersed over 

 the country, fluctuating to a considerable distance northward. 

 As is common with the tribe, the males come first, and feed 

 for some time on any berries that have been spared by the 

 winter birds ; at that time, it sometimes also nips off the 

 liybernacula of buds upon trees in gardens and other places, 



