LESSER WHITETHROAT 



67 



rows, bramble and furze bushes on commons, and among tangled 

 vegetation overhanging streams, but in all cases the nest is placed 

 in the midst of a dense mass of foliage. This is a somewhat loosely 

 made and shallow structure, composed of dry grass-stems and small 

 twigs, bound together with cobwebs and cocoons, and lined with fine 

 rootlets and horsehair. Four or five eggs are laid, in ground-colour 

 white or dull buff, blotched and speckled with greenish brown, with 

 underlying markings of purplish grey. 



Blackcap. 



Sylvia atricapilla. 



Head above the 

 eyes jet - black, in 

 the female chocolate- 

 brown; upper parts, 

 wings, and tail ash- 

 grey slightly tinged 

 with olive ; throat and 

 breast ash-grey ; belly 

 and under wing- cov- 

 erts white. Length, 

 five and a half inches. 



This brilliant song- 

 ster arrives in this 

 country about the 

 middle of April, in 

 some years consider- 

 ably earlier. It is 

 found throughout 

 England and Wales, 

 and extends its range 

 to Scotland and Ire- 

 land, only in lesser numbers. Though widely distributed it is rare, 

 except in some districts in the southern and western counties of 

 England. A person familiar with the ornithological literature of 

 this country, but having little personal knowledge of the birds, who 

 should go out to make acquaintance with the blackcap, would be 

 surprised at its rarity. After much seeking, he would probably come 



FIG. 28. BLACKCAP. ^ natural size. 



