402 
THE BLACKCAP. 
severe or wintry weather; thus, the spring of the 
year 1837 was extraordinarily late, or rather the 
winter preceding extraordinarily long ; accounts 
appeared in the newspapers of the effects of these 
inclemencies all over Europe, and with us the 
summer birds of passage were in each case late 
in their arrivals, the Blackcap not appearing 
till May 2nd, whilst in 1836 it was heard on April 
20th. Even on its arrival in that year the country 
wore a desolate aspect, not a tree was in leaf, and 
I believe insects must have been scarce. Mr. 
Blyth in a paper in the “ Field Naturalist” observes 
they not unfrequently arrive in the end of March, 
and I find also that Montagu says they feed on their 
first arrival on ivy berries, so that I presume in the 
event of their early arrival they partake of this 
food in common with some of our resident birds, 
until insects become revived by milder weather; but 
that they live entirely on ivy berries during the first 
part of their stay with us is I know incorrect, they 
may combine this food with insects and indeed I 
have seen them haunting an ivied wall some parts 
of the day and returning again to trees in the in¬ 
tervals, but small scarabsei, aphides, and aureliae 
form I am convinced the staple portion of their 
support for a long time. The berries of the ivy 
seem to be a provision for many of our resident 
birds, which indeed but for this stock might stand 
muchin want,and not unfrequently it hasbeen found 
so far needful that every berry has been devoured 
before the arrival of the Blackcap, so that here 
again there appears reason to doubt if this food is 
greatly depended on by this bird. On the contrary, 
as soon as it arrives it is a frequenter .of apple, pear, 
and other fruit trees, amongst the branches of which 
it moves in a desultory manner, searching all the 
while for its food; at intervals it utters its sweet 
note or flies off for a while to some adjoining tree. 
