BLACKCAP AND GARDEN WARBLBE. 2g 



of my drawing-room window in the country are always two 

 rows or hedges of sweet peas, and another of edible peas ; 

 towards the end of the summer some little pale yellow loirAs 

 come frequently and climb up and down the pea-sticks, ap- 

 parently in search of insects rather than of the peas. These 

 are the young Willow-warblers, which after their first moult 

 assume this gently-toned yellow tint ; and very graceful and 

 beautiful creatures they are. 



We have to walk but a little further on to hear or see at 

 least two of our first group, the Sylviae, or fruit-eating warblers. 

 As we pass into the Park by the entrance close to the house 

 of the Keeper of the Museum, we are almost sure, on any 

 sunny day, to hear both Blackcap and Garden-warbler, and 

 with a little pains and patience, to see them both. These two 

 (for a wonder) take their scientific names from the character- 

 istics which sensible English folk have thought best to name 

 them by; the Blackcap being Sylvia atracapilla, and the 

 Garden-warbler Sylvia hortensis. Mr. Euskin says, in that 

 delicious fragment of his about birds, called Love's Meinie, 

 that all birds should be named on this principle ; and indeed 

 if they had only to discharge the duty which many of our 

 English names perform so well, viz. that of letting English 

 people know of what bird we are talking, his plan would be 

 an excellent one. Unluckily Ornithology is a science, and a 

 science which embraces all the birds in the world; and we 

 m/ust have some means of knowing for certain that we shall 

 be understood of all the world when we mention a bird's name. 

 This necessity is well illustrated in the case of the warblers. 



