69 



THE BLACKCAP. 



Sylvia atricapilla (L.). 



With the exception of three individual stragglers observed 

 respectively in Hampshire, Lancashire and Northumberland 

 on the 12th, 15th and 17th of March (dates sufficiently- 

 remarkable to be regarded as abnormal), the Blackcap began 

 to arrive singly or in small numbers on the coasts of Hamp- 

 shire and Sussex, and in Kent, Surrey and Suffolk, between 

 the 1st and the 16th of April. 



Early on the morning of the 17th of April very large 

 numbers were observed at St. Catherine's light. Isle of Wight, 

 and twelve were killed. This influx, which initiated the first 

 important immigration of the species, continued for ten days; 

 and though the chief points of arrival were the coasts of 

 Kent and Essex, the whole of the southern seaboard, except 

 Cornwall, was also included in the movement. On the 19th 

 of April the records of first arrivals from Shropshire, Stafford- 

 shire and Yorkshire, and on the 21st and 22nd from Hereford- 

 shire, Northamptonshire, Leicestershire and Denbigh, showed 

 that the earliest arrivals had now spread as far north as a 

 line joining the Wash and the Isle of Anglesey. 



On the 28th and 29th of April there were indications of 

 a lesser immigration all along the south coast, and by the 

 end of April the species had become generally distributed 

 throughout its breeding localities. 



Other minor immigrations appear to have taken place on 

 the 2nd and ord of Ma}' and again on the 10th and 14th, when 

 two Blackcaps were killed at St. Catherine's light during a 

 large immigration of twelve other species. 



The earliest nesting records were those from Somerset 

 and Radnor on the 5th of May, and from Kent on the 7th. 



