104 
SYLA'IAD.E. 
lions, and thickets, especially where the ground is well 
covered with brushwood and tangled herbage. Many of 
them also inhabit gardens and orchards, where, in the spring, 
they are eminently serviceable in destroying innumerable 
insects, such as small caterpillars, which they pick from 
among the buds, blossoms, and leaves of fruit trees ; also 
the chrysalides of various insects which are secreted about 
their rugged bark. These services are apt to be forgotten 
when, as the summer fruits ripen, the Blackcap is found 
among the foremost in partaking of them, and that not 
sparingly. Its partiality is particularly evinced for cherries, 
especially the most juicy sorts, of vdiich it is so fond that 
it can hardly be driven from them, but returns again and 
again to a favourite tree. This species feeds also upon 
the berries of the ivy and the elder, upon blackberries, 
dewberries, etc. It seldom takes insects upon the wing, 
but occasionally descends to the ground in search of worms 
and crawling things. 
We have occasionally seen, in gardens and hedgerows, 
the young nestlings beginning to fly, and attended assidu¬ 
ously by the parents. When they find themselves followed 
or observed, the old birds utter sharply, like the nightingale, 
the warning note, tack! The young birds, in their nest¬ 
ling plumage, resemble the female, but when the autumnal 
moult commences, the beautiful black cap of the male begins 
to be assumed. This makes its appearance first about the 
base of the beak, which part becomes interspersed with 
minute black feathers, extending gradually over the whole 
head: and we have observed, in specimens which we have 
brought up from the nest, that the song of the male com¬ 
mences simultaneously with the first appearance of the 
black hood. The beak and legs of this species are, in 
young specimens, of a beautiful clear grey colour, and of 
most delicate texture, resembling the finest kid leather: 
