ON THE BRITISH BIRDS. 
660 
ingale as a song bird, its history seems still but imperfectly known. 
Mr. Sweet has observed those he lias kept in his aviary to exhibit 
the migratory agitation at various times during winter, and hence 
concludes that they visit more than one country after their departure 
from this ; and I have had recently an opportunity of verifying his 
remark upon a fine cock bird, which I purchased at Paris. It was 
so very restless in the night for about two weeks, in the end of Sep¬ 
tember, that I was compelled to remove it from my bed-room, where 
its cage had previously hung; no covering to exclude the moonlight 
was of any avail to quiet its fluttering. About the middle of No¬ 
vember this agitation was removed, and, as before, was confined to 
the night, for during the day it remained quiet, and slept a great 
deal. Are we to infer from this, that its first station, on leaving us 
is the South of Europe, from which it subsequently flits to Africa ? 
It accords with this view that it is said to be found at Gibraltar, as 
well as upon the Morocco shore. Selby says it is rare to the south 
of the Apperinees and the Pyrenees; but his information may pos¬ 
sibly refer to an allied species Sylvia melanocephala Lortham Ind. 
which M. Natterer shot at Algesiras and near Gibraltar; and which 
Temminck says is confined to the south of Spain, Sardinia, and the 
Neapolitan States. The distinctive characters given by Temminck 
are Orbits naked, bill rather thick and strong; the male with a 
black hood (capuchon); the female with a blackish ash-coloured 
hood,” It is not improbable that this may be “La petite Calom- 
baude” of Buffbn’s, and the black hood (Tinto nearo de Capello) 
of Madeira, though Dr. Heineken is disposed to consider the latter 
as only a variety of the black cap (Ph. atricapilla). He describes 
it as “a somewhat larger and coarser bird than the common one; 
its general plumage more sombre and olivaceous; and the black, 
instead of being confined to the head, extends as low as the shoul¬ 
ders behind, and loses itself gradually on the breast before,”* wdiich 
agrees so precisely with Temminck s description, that I think it 
unnecessary to follow Dr. Heineken into other particulars. 
Mr, Knapp says, though it remains in our gardens and orchards, 
“its exceeding dislike to man is very extraordinary,” and “may 
arise from a long residence in wilds and solitary places, seldom 
visited by human beings, during those eight or nine months when 
it is absent from us, so that man becomes an unknown creature, 
and injury is suspected,”f On the contrary, we learn from Dr, 
Heineken that, during its winter retreat, it frequents gardens and 
* Zool. Cardn. No. xvii. 7.5. 
f Journal of a Naturalist, p. 227, 
