210 INSESSORES. CURRUCA. Warbler. 



Food, nest, although but half fledged at the time. — The food of the 

 Black- Cap consists of insects, which it searches for among 

 the leaves and light sprays, being seldom or never seen upon 

 the ground. It also greedily devours the smaller sorts of 

 fruit, particularly raspberries and red currants. On its first 

 arrival it feeds upon the berries of the ivy, but quits this 

 diet as soon as the summer's warmth has called a sufficiency 

 of the insect tribe into existence. 



The species is widely dispersed through the northern and 

 eastern parts of Europe, extending to as high a latitude as 

 Lapland. It is rare beyond the Apennine and Pyrennean 

 Mountains. In Madeira it is common, and permanently re- 

 sident. Another, nearly allied to it (indeed considered by 

 some as only a variety) is also not uncommon on that island ; 

 and which last is figured and described as Curruca Heineken 

 in the " Illustrations of Ornithology"" by Jardine and 

 Selby. 



Plate 46. Fig. 2. A male bird of the natural size. 

 General Forehead, crown, and occiput, black. Neck and breast 

 ti!m"^' g^sy- Upper parts of the body grey, tinged with oil- 



Male bird, green. Belly and vent pale ash-grey. Legs and feet 



bluish-grey. Bill and irides brown. 



Female. Fig. 3. The female, natural size. 



Crown of the head umber-brown. General tints of the 

 plumage darker, and more inclining to oil-green than 

 in the male bird. Exceeds the male in size. 



The young, upon quitting the nest, resemble the female 

 in plumage. 



