TURDID^. 19 



the two birds. The stranger wns certainly smaller than the Blackcap, 

 instead of being larger, as the Orphean Warbler is said to be, and which 

 we supposed it to be, as no other Elack-headed Warbler was known to 

 visit England besides those two species (W. D'U., Zool. 1890, p. 467). Mr. 

 Howard launders, however, considers it was a Black-headed Warbler 

 (Salvia mdanocej)hala), a common species in the south of France and the 

 Peninsula, as well as other parts of the South of Europe, and which he 

 thinks might be easily swept up with the tide of migration during a gale 

 to our western shores (Zool. 1891, p. 272). 



Blackcap. Sylvia atricainlla (Linn.). 



A summer migrant, generally distributed and common. Breeds. 



From our own observations it arrives from IGth to 24th April near 

 Exmouth and Exeter, and feeds on the ripe berries of the ivy at that time. 

 It not unfrequently remains throughout the Avinter. One was heard sing- 

 ing near Topsham on Jan. 20th, 1856, and one was seen near Exeter on 

 Feb. 11th, 1869 (E. P., Trans. Devon. Assoc, vol. viii. p. 246). The lato 

 Mr. W. Brodrick heard it in March 1882 at Chudleigh, and Mr. Parfitt 

 says he saw one annually at Exeter from 23rd to 30th March for many 

 years (o^j. cit. p. 265). The late Mr. G. Treft'ry informed us that for 

 several years he observed that the males appeared on 18th April in his 

 garden at St. David's Hill, Exeter. The females were always eight or 

 ten days later. In his MS. ' Occurrences in Nat. Hist.' (vol. ii. p. 7), the 

 late Mr. Ross remarks having seen a pair on April 10th, 1839, and that 

 several had been seen for the first time m his neighbourhood in that year. 

 He observes it was very destructive to small fruits, such as green currants, 

 gooseberries, cherries, and in fact everything. It is sometimes seen in the 

 first week in April at Plymouth and Torquay ('Naturalist,' 1851, pp. 86, 

 204, and Zool. 1872, p. 279). Dr. E. ^loorc says, "Arrives in April and 

 departs in September ; is not uncommon ; frequents woods and gardens " 

 (Trans. Plymouth Inst. 1830, p. 303). Bellamy observes that "the 

 Blackcap arrives here [Plymouth] x^ith tolerable regularity about the last 

 week in April, and often earlier" (Nat. Hist. S. Devon, p. 401). ]\Ir. Henry 

 Nicholls writes, " I caught a female specimen of this species in the green- 

 house at Ptoseland, Kingsbridgc, on the 12th Nov., 1886. After exam- 

 ining it I gave it liberty, and, to my surj)rise, on the follow ing day I found 

 it there again, attracted, no doubt, by some gra])es which were hanging 

 on the vine, as I found many of the berries perforated. It continued to 

 roost there till December loth, when on that day it Hew away during a 

 heavy fall of snow and hail, and did not return " (MS. Notes). A male 

 Blackcap was shot on Dec. 12th, 1S!)0, while feeding on some honeysuckle 

 berries in a garden at Barnstaple? (Zool. 18!)1 , p. 62). Mr. E. A. S. Elliot, 

 of Kingsbridge, says : " On Aj)ril 26th, 1881,1 found a Blackcap's nest 

 with three eggs in our garden, which I took: on the 28th they began 

 building another nest in some ivy close by, which was finished and lined 

 by the 2nd ^lay ; the following day it contained one egg, and one was laid 



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