BLACKCAP. 



43 



and depart. It is very careful and suspicious ; and I have observed 

 that both birds occasionally perform the office of incubation. 



* " The song- of the Blackcap," says Mr. Sweet, " is very loud and 

 agreeable ; and it has a great variety of notes ; it is also a real mock- 

 bird, and will catch the note of any bird that it chances to hear sing ; 

 I have heard it imitate the nightingale so exactly, that it has deceived 

 me ; also the blackbird, thrush, and the greater pettichaps, all of 

 which it imitates so much in its voice, that it is almost impossible to 

 detect it, except when it runs from one into the other ; or shows itself 

 on a open part of the tree." 1 " The Blackcap," says Syme, " is truly a 

 most delightful warbler, and may be ranked as second in the class of 

 British song-birds. Indeed, in our own opinion, its mellow notes are 

 equal, if not superior in richness of tone, to any in the nightingale's 

 song. It is true the warble is desultory, but sweetly wild, and full of 

 melody. The cadence rises and swells, then dies away in a soft and 

 plaintive strain. Its shake, or trilling note, is the finest we ever 

 heard. A first-rate opera singer might imitate it ; but, like all imita- 

 tions, it would fall short of the original. The first time we heard the 

 notes of this bird, we mistook them for those of the red-breast and 

 the thrush, such was the similarity of its notes to theirs, particularly 

 its low notes, which are so similar to the soft, mellow tones of the 

 thrush, that, when the latter are heard from a little distance, it is not 

 easy to distinguish them from those of the Blackcap ; but on hearing 

 it several times, and at last seeing the bird, and observing the motion 

 of its little throat, we were convinced the whole notes proceeded from 

 one bird. On mature consideration, (having now heard it frequently,) 

 we are still of the same opinion ; but when it pours out its full song, 

 we think it possesses many notes very similar to several in the night- 

 ingale's warble, thus combining in its song many of the musical qua- 

 lities of these three excellent song-birds." Buffbn says " that its airs 

 are light and easy, and consist of a succession of modulations of small 

 compass, but sweet, flexible, and blended." And our ingenious country- 

 man, Mr. White, observes : " that it has usually a full, sweet, deep, loud, 

 and wild pipe ; yet the strain is of short continuance, and its motions 

 desultory. But when this bird sits calmly, and in earnest engages in 

 song, it pours forth very sweet, but inward melody, and expresses 

 great variety of sweet and gentle modulations, superior, perhaps, to 

 any of our warblers, the nightingale excepted. While they warble, 

 their throats are wonderfully distended." 2 



1 Journal of a Naturalist. 2 Natural History of Selborne, Let. 60. 



