42 BLACK-HEADED BIRDS. 



nape, and back are black. The Bullfinch is very 

 generally diffused, and nests in low trees, dense 

 bushes, or hedgerows. It pairs for life, and is gener- 

 ally to be met feeding in pairs, its food consisting 

 of fruit, seeds, insects, and young buds, in collecting 

 which it frequents garden, copse, and hedgerow — rarely, 

 if ever, going to the ground. Its song is trivial, and 

 consists of only a few low notes ; on the other hand, 

 its call-note is a musical, piping, single note, distinct 

 and distinctive. 



STONECHAT— 5i inches ; head, neck, and throat black ; 

 sides of neck white ; bill longer, slender, straight, and 

 pointed. A bird of open gorse- lands. Call -note, 

 ' V-tach ! ' 



BLACKCAP — 5i inchea ; a brilliant songster ; brown above ; 

 gray-breasted ; white below ; pointed bill. The rim of 

 the cap does not descend below the eye nor include 

 the chin as in the Bullfinch. 



BLACKCAP. — Plate 21. Length, 5^ inches. 

 General colour of upper parts, wings, and tail 

 ashy-brown ; neck and under parts ashy-gray, the 

 latter becoming white on the belly ; head capped 

 with glossy black. Summer migrant. 



Eggs. — 4—5, whitish, mottled with ash and light 

 brown, and having a few isolated spots and streaks 

 of dark brown; "TS^'SS inch. There is a variety 

 tinged with red (plate 123). 



Nest. — Of dry grass, lined with root-fibres and 

 hair, and placed a few feet from the ground in the 

 fork of a branch of a bush. 



Distribution. — Local throughout England and 



