THE UNIVERSAL FAMILY PAPER FOR INTER-COMMUNICATIONS ON 



NATURAL HISTORY-POPULAR SCIENCE— THINGS IN BENERAL. 



Conducted by WILLIAM KIDD, of Hammersmith,— 



Author of the Familiar and Popular Essays on "Natural History;" "British Song 

 Birds;" "Birds op Passage; " "Instinct and Reason;" " The Aviary," &c. 



"the OBJECT OF OUR WORK is to make men WISER, without obliging them to turn over folios and 



QUARTOS. — TO FURNISH MATTER FOR THINKING AS WELL AS READING." — EVELYN. 



No. 37.— 1852. 



SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 11. 



Price 3d. 



Or, in Monthly Parts, Price Is. Id. 



BIKDS OF SONG. 



No. XXVI.— THE BLACK-CAP. 



We have now entered on September, 

 a most glorious month for the most part, 

 with fine bracing mornings and delightful 

 dewy evenings — with such sun-sets ! In the 

 middle of the day, our lovely Sol shines 

 with great, intensity, causing us indeed to 

 feel his power ! Now — 



" Half in a blush of clustering Roses lost, 



Dew-dropping Coolness to the shade retires; 

 There, on the verdant turf, or flowery bed, 

 By gelid founts, and careless rills to muse; 

 While tyrant Heat, dispreading through the 



skies 

 With rapid sway, his burning influence darts 

 On man, and beast, and herb, and tepid 



stream." 



Animals, where they have it in their 

 power, retire during the day, to pools of 

 water, or the shade, and avoid the sun's 

 scorching rays ; whilst our little friends, the 

 birds, seek the thickets, and for a season 

 become lost to sight. Their tiny voices 

 have, some time since, been silenced. They 

 are, ' unobserved by the human eye, now 

 quietly undergoing that annual change, 

 which Nature in her wisdom has deemed 

 necessary for their welfare — " moulting." 



It is beyond all question true, that in the 

 moulting season, when intense heat brings 

 on a slow fever which partially consumes 

 and entirely disorganises the whole system 

 of the feathered tribe — each little sufferer 

 banishes himself, as if by mutual compact, 

 from the place of his former rendezvous, and 

 conceals himself artfully from the eye of 

 man, until decked in his new and becoming 

 apparel. Equally true is it, that he feels 

 himself " unclean " until such change shall 

 have become effected ; and that by an un- 

 erring instinct, he submits in solitude, and 

 with patience worthy of imitation, to the 

 many little nameless ailments and trying 

 sicknesses which are inseparable from this 



annual visitation. You shall walk the fields 

 " from morn till noon, from noon till dewy 

 eve," at the moulting season, and find " all 

 silence." 



There are, of course, some solitary excep- 

 tions to this general rule — as in the case of 

 the yellow-hammer, for instance, whose 

 monotonous but far from disagreeable song 

 may be sometimes heard very late in the 

 season. He loves pre-eminence, when he 

 can obtain it ; and seems to be in his ele- 

 ment, when he is left master of the field. 

 A sky-lark may also be occasionally heard 

 " trying " his voice in a subdued tone ; and 

 a few indistinct twitters are just audible 

 among the brushwood. In all other respects, 

 the past month of August, as regards vocal 

 melody in the woods and fields, has been a 

 blank — an "aching void." All nature is 

 still in a state of lassitude ; and inactivity 

 prevails on every hand. A change, how- 

 evev, will now speedily take place. 



Until very recently, the black- cap has 

 been heard singing, early and late ; and his 

 mellow, joyous voice, occasionally responded 

 to by some happy warbling blackbird, 

 seated on the summit of a distant tree, has 

 afforded the lover of nature an exquisite 

 treat. For the last three weeks, we have 

 listened — but in vain, for his flute-like 

 strains ; and tried to catch a glimpse of his 

 neat, trim little person ; but alas ! " he has 

 gone from our gaze," and we shall see him 

 no more till he has donned his new livery. 

 By the way he is one of the very few 

 warblers, who, having recovered from his 

 moult, treats us with an occasional renewal 

 of his song before taking his final leave of 

 our country. He likes to have " the last 

 word " — and he shall have it ! 



A more thoroughly domesticated bird than 

 the black-cap, there cannot be. Never did 

 bird evince greater reluctance to quit the 

 land of his birth than does he ; but his tribe 

 being gregarious in the autumnal season, 

 and instinct teaching them to keep together 

 when about to decamp, he sacrifices all to 



Vol. II. 



