38 BRITISH BIRDS’ EGGS. 
BLACKCAP. 
SyLvIaA ATRICAPILLA, Linn. 
Pl. IX., figs. 10, 14. 
Geogr. dist.—Throughout Europe, excepting in the extreme north ; 
eastward into Persia, and in Africa as far southward as the Gambia ; 
also found in the Canaries, Madeira, and the Azores; in Great Britain 
it arrives in April and leaves in September or October, and is to be 
met with commonly in England and Wales. 
Food.—Insects in all stages, spiders, Crustacea, berries, and small 
fruits. 
Nest.—Cup-shaped, formed of dry grass, straws and root fibre, with 
occasionally a little moss; lined with fine bents and a few horse-hairs. 
Position of nest.—In brambles, creepers, bushes or dwarfed trees 
in small woods, groves or gardens where there is plenty of dense 
undergrowth ; also rarely in the outskirts of dense forests. 
Number of eggs.—4-5. 
Time of nidaification.—IV-VII ; beginning of June. 
I have usually found the nest of this bird in a straggling 
and confused mass of bramble, honeysuckle and stinging- 
nettle, either in small open places in woods and groves, or 
else close to a narrow path just within the entrance to a 
wood. I believe it to be useless to look for this nest, 
excepting where the undergrowth is tolerably dense, as it 
almost invariably is in the Kentish woods, where one 
frequently has to find one’s way out backwards in order to 
make an exit after a morning’s collecting. As the male 
usually does the incubating, it is not so difficult to 
recognise the nest when found as one would imagine. 
The eggs vary in tint considerably more than those of 
the Garden Warblers; the red variety (Pl. IX., fig. 14) is 
one of a clutch which I took at Tunstall, in Kent, on May 
24th, 1877, and on the 29th of the same month in 1878 
I took a second clutch of five eggs, slightly larger but 
similarly coloured, within a hundred yards of the place 
where the first was obtained; if these were laid by the 
same bird, as seems likely, it would tend to show that 
the red colouring was confined to individuals of the 
species. 
