158 Silviadce. 



much sense as the unreasoning Roman epicure of old attempted 

 to gratify his palate with a dish of nightingales' tongues. But 

 strange to say, persecution does not seem to thin its numbers. 

 Mr. Morres speaks of them as quite abundant near Salisbury ; 

 .and though I have never known them in such profusion in north 

 Wilts, I have seen and heard them in many localities there ; and 

 in the oak copses of Sussex, and the leafy lanes of Surrey, I have 

 found them in great force. But in Portugal, and especially at 

 Cintra, and on the banks of the Lima in Minho, they positively 

 swarmed ; while in the Ionian Islands, Corfu, and many portions 

 of the Grecian coast, their numbers are astonishing. 



50. BLACKCAP WARBLER (Curruca atricapilla). 



This active little warbler is second only to the nightingale in 

 song, and being a regular summer visitant to our gardens and 

 orchards, as well as hedgerows, is known to most observers. Its 

 .general colour is ash-gray, but the jet-black head of the male and 

 the brown head of the female mark it at once from all others. 

 Insects and fruit are its favourite food, but few will quarrel with 

 it on the latter account, as it makes ample amends for any petty 

 thefts it may commit in the garden by the quantities of various 

 kinds of insects which infest fruit-trees, upon which it feeds its 

 young, as well as by the sweetness of its song, and its interesting 

 and engaging manners. Montagu designated it the ' Mock 

 Nightingale,' and Harting says it has been called the 'contralto 

 singer among birds,' and this title is certainly not undeserved.* 

 In Germany it is provincially called the ' Monk/ in allusion to 

 the hooded appearance of both male and female; and in the 

 Azores the female is known as c Red Hood ;' otherwise in all 

 Continental languages it derives its name, as with us, from its 

 black head. In France it is Bee-fin d tete noir; in Germany, 

 Schwarzkopfige Grasmucke ; in Italy, Capinera commune; in 

 Portugal, tutinegra for toutanegra, i.e., 'black poll;' in Sweden, 

 Svart hufvad Sdngare. It is a timid bird and very restless, 

 scarcely stationary an instant, except when it pours forth its 

 ' Birds of Middlesex,' p. 49. 



