GUNN : NORFOLK ORNITHOLOGY. 



173 



days afterwards it did not procure any of its own food — at least I supposed 

 so from the frequency with which the old ones brought it supplies. 



Blackcap, Sylvia atricapilla. The nest of the blackcap is so slightly 

 made, that under favourable circumstances, not more than five or six days 

 are occupied in its construction. It is usually composed of fine roots and 

 stalks of plants, the materials being finer towards the inside which nearly 

 always contains a few long horsehairs. I have seldom seen the nest without 

 a few cocoons of spiders or tufts of wool upon the outside. Ths male assists 

 in the duty of incubation but is far less patient than the female, seldom 

 remaining upon the eggs more than two hours at a time. 



(To he continued.) 



NOTES 0^ NOEFOLK OKNITHOLOGY. 



By T. E. Gunn. 



(From October ^Ist, to December Z\st, 1866.^) 



{Continued from page 166) 



The colour of the forehead is reddish chesnut, crown of head light 

 reddish brown, the feathers elongated forming a crest, the longest feathers 

 measuring one and five-eighths inches in length ; over the base of the upper 

 mandible, round the eyes, and reaching around its head, is an elongated cir- 

 cle of black j nape of neck light reddish brown, darker on its back, scapulars, 

 and upper wing coverts ; primaries black with elongated patches of yellow 

 at the ends of the outer webs, which are returned around the tips in some 

 specimens, and then assume a white margin along the whole tip either more 

 or less in width according to age ; the secondaries are dull purple brown, 

 tipped with pure white on the outer webs ; the tips of these feathers termi- 

 nate in an oblong appendage somewhat resembling in colour red sealing wax. 

 These tips Mr. Yarrell observes as being flat, but on close examination they 

 prove to be of a rounded surface, somewhat similar to the human finger- 

 nail, their underneath surface is pink; in some examples they measure as 

 much as three-eighths of an inch in length and one-eighth of an inch in width, 



