48 BLACKCAP. 
and Mayo; while in winter its presence has been recorded several 
times, especially in the south. 
From Scandinavia below 66° N. lat., the Blackcap is found breed- 
ing in every country of Europe, as well as in North Africa and 
Palestine ; in fact, allowing for migration of individuals, the Black 
cap appears to be a resident species in the basin of the Medi- 
terranean. In the Cape Verd Islands a form breeds in January, 
but later in the Canaries. In Madeira and the Azores, where it 
appears to be resident, a variety with much more black on the 
head and. shoulders of the male bird is not unfrequent. Its winter 
migrations have been traced.to the Gambia, Abyssinia, and the Red 
Sea; Omsk in Siberia being its somewhat doubtful eastern limit. 
The small but tolerably compact nest, built of dry grasses and 
lined with horsehair, is generally placed a few feet from the ground 
among bushes; a privet hedge being rather a favourite site. The 
4-8 eggs, laid from May oth onwards, are sometimes light yellowisb- 
brown blotched with a darker shade (like those of the Garden- 
Warbler, though a little smaller ;) in another variety the ground- 
colour and the blotches are suffused with a beautiful reddish hue : 
measurements *73 by ‘58 in. Two broods are reared in the season, 
and the male takes his turn at incubation, chiefly in the daytime. 
The food consists of insects, often taken on the wing; berries of 
the rowan, elder, &c.; and fruit, especially raspberries and red- 
currants, for the sake of which the nest is often placed in or near 
orchards and gardens. In the south the bird also pecks figs and 
oranges, and eats the berries of the pepper-tree. 
Adult male: upper part of the head jet-black ; nape ash grey ; 
back, wings and tail ash-brown; chin greyish-white ; throat, breast 
and flanks ash-grey; belly white; bill horn-brown; legs and feet 
lead-colour. Length 5°75: wing to the end of the third and 
longest quill 2°75 in. The female, which is somewhat larger, 
has the top of the head bright reddish-brown, and the rest of 
the plumage is browner than in the male. The young at first 
resemble the female, but the males acquire the black head, with 
merely brownish margins, during the first autumn. 
It has been stated that in winter adult males assume the plumage 
of the females ; but I have seen hundreds of birds with black heads 
in the markets of Southern Europe at that season; and Mr. John 
Young, who kept a pair of Blackcaps alive for four years, assures 
me that the male never changes colour after the first autumn moult. 
In spring some, if not all, of the tail-feathers are said to be renewed, 
but Mr. Young states that this is not his experience. 
