34 HANDBOOK OF BRITISH INLAND BIRDS 
conspicuous scribblings approaching the appearance 
of those on a Yellow-hammer's egg. The Black- 
cap's and Garden Warbler's eggs illustrated belong 
to these two well-defined and clearly contrasted 
types ; but the types shade into one another in 
such a confused and uncertain way, in any dozen 
eggs belonging to both species, that some Garden - 
Warblers' eggs seem more like Blackcaps', and some 
Blackcaps' more like Garden Warblers'. Conse- 
quently, to see the bird is the only safe way of 
distinguishing them. The cock Blackcap takes 
his turn at sitting on the eggs. This bird will 
sometimes play the curious trick of dropping from 
the nest and shuffling away from it as though with 
a broken wing ; a device which is better known 
among partridges and some species of ducks, 
though it also occurs in the case of some other 
small birds. 
GARDEN WARBLER. 
(^Sylvia horfensisJ) 
Haychat, Pettychaps. — The Garden Warbler 
has just been described fairly fully under the head- 
ing of the Blackcap, and for our present purposes 
there is not much to add. It does not make its 
appearance quite so early as its near relative, as might 
indeed be expected from, the fact that the Black- 
