The Blackcap — The Weiitethroat. 



309 



is not so frequent. It is somewhat delicate, but if care be bestowed and proper food supplied 

 it will live to a good age. The writer has successfully kept them in an open aviary during 

 severe winters, but if a greenhouse be available would advise that they be placed there. 



An esteemed correspondent (Mr. J. Young) writes us : — " I kept a pair for over four years in 

 perfect health ; the cock was at length carried off by an epidemic which decimated my aviary. 

 This pair of Blackcaps had the migratory fever regularly every September and March, and 

 occasionally during the winter months. The cock-bird began to show its symptoms about a 

 week or ten days before the hen ; as the time approached, the hen, who at other times lived on 

 good terms with her mate, would drive him fiercely about the cage. They were fed on the 

 general food of the aviary, viz., bread-crumbs, &gg, ants' eggs, and German paste mixed ; occa- 

 sionally mealworms or gentles. Fruit of some kind was. always in the cage, such as apples, pears, 

 currants, elderberries, &c. The cock warbled inwardly during the autumn and winter and 

 early spring, but in April, as soon as the migratory fever was over, he suddenly broke out 

 into loud song. They moulted in August. The cock was very tame, and would take flies 

 or mealworms from my hand, or catch them as I dropped them from the roof of the cage ; 

 the hen never became tame. They lived in an all-wire cage, four feet by two feet, and 

 three feet high, with other birds, in a room without a fire." 



The food should resemble that recommended for the Nightingale. The bird must, how- 

 ever, be supplied with soft garden fruit, such as currants and raspberries, when in season. 

 Elderberries and green figs will be eaten with great satisfaction, whilst as a treat a ripe 

 pear may be given. In order to supply the bird with elderberries in winter, a stock of 

 dried fruit should be set aside ; when given to the bird, they should be soaked in water 

 until soft. If the elderberries be exhausted, grocer's currants will make a very fair sub- 

 stitute ; also split a fig, and place it against the bars for the bird to peck. A few flies 

 or spiders will be greedily devoured. Some finely-chopped walnuts, or any other kind of 

 nuts similarly treated, will make an agreeable change. 



The usual ailments are much the same as a Nightingale's, and must be so treated. 



The Whitethroat.— This bird is of all the warblers the most common in England ; it is 

 also known in some parts by the name of the Nettle Creeper. It generally frequents hedgerows, 

 gardens, the edges of woods or plantations, thickets, or any brushwood, where it may be seen 

 sitting on a spray of the bramble, its delicately tinted breast shining in the sunlight, whence 

 it will rise in the air, fluttering at a height of about thirty feet and singing its merry little song 

 then suddenly dropping to the bush in silence. It is very sprightly in its habits, of elegant shape, 

 rather slight in build, and about five and a half inches in length. The beak is horn-brown ; the 

 head and neck grey ; the back grey, deeply tinged with brown ; the tail dark brown, slightly edged 

 with rust-colour, the two outer feathers being greyish-white, which are distinctly perceptible in 

 flight; the wings are dark brown, each feather being edged with a light rusty brown ; the throat 

 and belly are white; the breast, sides, and vent very pale grey, delicately tinted with a beautiful 

 rosy flesh-colour. The female is somewhat smaller than the male, and the tints on the breast 

 lighter. 



A pair which built in our garden were particularly useful in ridding some gooseberry-bushes 

 of the small caterpillars that infested them, devoting the whole of their energies to feeding their 

 young with this troublesome insect, which they carried off in their beaks to the expectant brood, 

 until the caterpillars were completely destroyed. The food, when wild, is similar to that of the 

 Blackcap, and, when kept in confinement, it should be fed on the same pastes, insects, and fruit. 



