30 OXFORD : SPEING AND EARLY SUMMER. 



So many kinds of them are there, belonging to all our three 

 groups, in Europe alone, not to speak of other parts of the 

 world, that even a scientific terminology and description upon 

 description have not been able to save the birds from getting 

 mixed up together, or getting confounded with their own young, 

 or with the young of other birds. 



If the Blackcap were not a Sylvia, he could not well be 

 scientifically named after his black head, for other birds, 

 such as Titmice, have also black heads, and I have frequently 

 heard the Cole Tit described as the Blackcap. In any case 

 he should perhaps have been named after his wonderful 

 faculty of song, in which he far excels all the other birds 

 of our three groups. Most people know the Blackcap's song 

 who have ever lived in the country, for you can hardly enter 

 a wood in the summer without being struck by it ; and all 

 I need do here is to distinguish it as well as I can from that 

 of the Garden-warbler, which may easily be mistaken for it 

 by an unpractised ear, when the birds are keeping out of 

 sight in the foliage, as they often most provokingly will 

 do. Both are essentially warblers ; that is, they sing a strain 

 of music, continuous and legato, instead of a song that is 

 broken up into separate notes or short phrases, like that of the 

 Song-thrush, or the Chiff-chaff. But they differ in two points : 

 the strain of the Blackcap is shorter, forming in fact one 

 lengthened phrase ' in sweetness long drawn out,' while the 

 Garden-warbler will go on almost continuously for many 

 minutes together ; and secondly, the Blackcap's music is played 

 upon a mellower instrument. The most gifted Blackcaps — for 



