9 
BLACKCAP. 
the expected brood, though coarsely put together, is compact, and yet sufficiently serviceable to perform its 
required duty; the accommodation for the j uveniles, however, when compared with that provided by various 
other small birds, can only he described as second class. 
The eggs vary greatly, and to describe them in a few words is almost hopeless. The ground is usually of 
a pale yellowish or dirty white tint, scrawled, spotted, or blotched with irregular markings of dark red and 
yellowish brown. I have occasionally come across a nest where the whole of the clutch of four or five 
eggs closely resembled variegated brown marble. 
In the nestling plumage the young are similar to the female ; the general tint of the feathers, however, is 
somewhat more dingy. 
