BRITISH SONG-BIRDS. 119 



their favourite spots for nestling are shrubberies 

 and young plantations, under the lower branches 

 of larch, spruce, or silver fii% That described by 

 Pennant was placed in a spruce fir about two feet 

 from the ground : the outside was composed of 

 dried stalks of the goose-grass, with a little wool 

 and green moss round the edge ; and the lining 

 consisted of fibrous roots thinly covered with 

 horse hair. It contained five eggs of a pale reddish- 

 brown, mottled with a deeper colour, and sprinkled 

 mth a few dark spots. According to our nomen- 

 clature their colour is very pale chesnut-brown, 

 inclining to flesh-red, freckled with deep chesnut- 

 brown, and marked at the large end with larger 

 spots of liver-brown. 



Description and Plumage, 



The blackcap is slender and elegant in form, — 

 what the Scotch would express by the word 

 " trig." It is quick and lively in its motions, and 

 seems to turn round the trunks and branches of 

 trees to hide itself as it were from observation, 

 like some of the wrens and fauvettes. It is about 

 five and a half inches in length : the upper man- 



