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 pecuharly 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 buifish-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 

 reaUy 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 



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