few notes concerning one or two of the commoner species. 
The black-cap, for example, may be readily distinguished 
by its grey plumage contrasting with a black cap—reddish- 
brown—in the female. It has also a peculiarly delightful 
song, which some prefer to that of the nightingale. This, 
the most celebrated of all our warblers—though for some 
inscrutable reason some ornithologists appear to regard 
it as a near ally of the redstarts and robin !—frequents woods 
with thick undergrowth and tangled hedgerows, and hence 
is seldom seen, but may be recognized by the uniform russet- 
brown coloration of its upper parts, shading into pale chestnut 
on the tail, and the ash-grey of the under parts, shading into 
white on the throat and abdomen. The whitethroat may be 
recognized by the fine white ring round the eye, grey head, 
brown upper parts, and buffish-pink breast, set off by the 
conspicuous white throat, from which the bird derives its 
name. It is perhaps the only British warbler which can 
really be distinguished during flight, and this only because 
the outermost pair of tail-feathers are almost wholly white. 
It may be looked for in hedges and thickets, as well as on 
gorse-covered commons. Its near relation, the lesser-white- 
throat, differs in its smaller size, whiter under parts, and the 
absence of the rufous edges to the secondaries, which are 
one of the distinguishing features of the common white- 
throat. The garden-warbler is much more frequently heard 
216 
