NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
381 
and down, and worry themselves ; they have not sense to get out 
of the rut, and so they lie down and perish. Some say that they 
die because they cannot get w^ater ; they are mostly found dead 
in numbers at the approach of autumn in hot, dry weather ; 
they soon decompose after death. 
Blackcap, p. 93. — This bird is also called the "mock niglitin- 
gale," and the Norfolk nightingale," and is very easily kept in 
confinement. These birds do well upon such food as bread 
crumbs, bruised hempseed, and a little hard-boiled egg and 
German paste mixed ; they are long lived, and sing freely many 
months in the year. Numbers are kept in confinement by 
London fanciers. They are very common in Derbyshire, although 
there are no nightingales there. Blackcaps do not mind the cold 
and frosty weather, as they come as early as before the end of 
March. AVhen they first come they feed on ivy berries. In the 
autumn they eat quantities of fruit, currants, pears, plums, &c. 
The Baroness Burdett Coutts has some large trees close to her 
residence at Highgate which are covered with ivy. This ivy 
produces an abundance of berries ; as a rule the blackcaps are 
noticed feeding on the Baroness's ivy earlier than anywhere. 
They are very close-feathered, hardy birds ; when freshly 
caught, as a rule, few or none are lost, in " meating off." The 
blackcap fattens upon ripe elder berries for the migration. 
From August up to the middle of September is the time when 
all the London bird-catchers take large numbers of " soft meat 
birds, as they are then " clean moulted " and " meat off " much 
easier. 
Mr. Napier writes : — " The eggs of the blackcap are generally 
a good deal smaller than those of the garden warbler. These 
varieties very much resemble in colouring those of the blackcap ; 
a most beautiful variety has the ground of a pale pinkish white, 
clouded all over with rich reddish marks, with a few nearly black 
spots. A third variety is white, with spots of ash and ochre, prin- 
cipally gathered towards the large end, but without the nearly 
black spots so general in the eggs of this bird. These black spots 
are supposed by some zoologists to be the distinguishing mark 
between the eggs of the garden warbler and the blackcap. The 
nest of the blackcap is a loose structure, often formed of grass 
or the stems of bedstraw or umbelliferous plants, and is usually 
lined with hair. It is a summer visitor to Britain, and has 
usually eggs (which are from four to five in number) about the 
months of May and J une." 
' "Soft incjit l)ivds are the insect-feeders. " j\re;itiii<i; off'" means induciiio; 
the birds to take artificial food in captivity. 
