54 Birds I Have Kept. 



for wliicli these birds have a decided weakness; but they 

 become much more familiar if taken from the nest, which it 

 is absolutely necessary to do, if it be desired to teach them 

 an air, or any other accomplishment. The female also sings, 

 but her song is weaker, and not so well sustained as that 

 of the male. 



The Blackcap has one, sometimes two broods in the season, 

 and lays four or flye, rarely six, eggs of a yellowish white, 

 mottled with yellow, and thickly spotted with brown. The 

 nest is well and substantially built of grass, in a low bush 

 generally, and is lined with hair. The young are fed chiefly 

 on small caterpillars, and can be easily enough reared in the 

 house on scraped meat and ants' eggs, or even bread and milk. 

 They resemble their mother until after their first moult, and 

 should not be taken until they are just ready to fly; when 

 it is a good plan to place them with their nest in a cage 

 suspended in a tree, near the spot where they were bom, 

 and the old ones will continue to feed them, until they are 

 able to cater for themselves. 



As Bechstein remarks, "it is perhaps a sufficient eulogium 

 to siay that this bird rivals the Nightingale, and many persons 

 even give it the preference. If it has less volume, strength, and 

 expression, it is more pure, easy, and flute-like in its tones, 

 and its song is more varied, smooth, and delicate. It sings 

 also for a much longer period, both when wild and when in 

 confinement; its song being scarcely suspended through the 

 year, by day, and prolonged, like that of the ITightingale, 

 far into the night, though begun at dawn." 



Desirable as it is in many respects as an inmate of the 

 cage and aviary, no one but a person gifted with much patience, 

 and a great love of birds, should attempt to keep a Blackcap 

 in this cold climate of ours: all soft-biUed birds are more or 

 less trouble to keep, and the Blackcap more than aU the rest, 

 except perhaps the Nightingale. Feed him, however, as I 

 have recommended, and keep him clean and warm, and he 



