174 BIRDS OF THE COUNTRYSIDE 



of a bramble, and ever and anon his wild and brilliant 

 song came leaping out of his throat. A foot or two away 

 sat a bullfinch, bulky form and sedentary pose of Black- 

 pate No. 2 giving the full romance to Blackpate No. 1. 

 It is nearly always hear rather than see with the black- 

 cap, especially when tree and bush are full-gowned in 

 green, for, with the exception of the grasshopper warbler 

 and hawfinch, no bird known to me is more difficult 

 to watch, partly because of his extreme shyness, partly 

 because he usually sings in the middle of a thick bush, 

 which, rather than the bird, breaks into song, and 

 partly because he becomes silent and slips away when 

 approached. Here, then, in this " rathe " wood were 

 the special conditions I was always seeking and so rarely 

 finding in the shape I expected. The blackcap's song 

 has a brief main figure, a central design, loud, full, 

 ringing, pure, and though delivered with great rapidity 

 and excitement, each note sharply articulated. Some 

 of the notes are very high and clear, like the shape of 

 a jagged mountain on a bright, cold day. But the 

 burden, so to speak, is all decorated and spangled with 

 " a great variety of soft and gentle modulations," as 

 Gilbert White says in his beautiful description, and 

 some of the notes in the " inward melody " have the 

 sweetness and mellowness of a very different poet — 

 the blackbird. There are no trills in the song, and the 

 high-pitched quavering of a robin singing hard by afforded 

 as strong a contrast in sound as did the bullfinch in 

 shape. Now, my blackcap, having but just arrived, 

 left out the inward modulations, to be acquired when 

 he is more at home. Yet it is this image of the 

 blackcap I retain above all others, singing and darting 

 to and fro on a chilly April day in the lap of a bramble, 

 flanked by silent bullfinch and robin with his glittering 

 sprays of sound. 



It is an odd thing to record fine things of the spotted 

 fly-catcher, whose disposition is generally assumed to 

 be as drab as his colour — a mediocre, respectable, 

 depressed little bird, sitting hunched on a fence or a 

 gatepost, earning his commonplace living. I have 

 found him otherwise, though a certain grand occasion 



