1NSESSORES.
DEN TIROS TRES.
SYLVIADÆ.
TH E BLACKCAP WARBLER.
Sylvia atricapilla, Blackcap Warbler,
Motacilla ,,
Curruca ,,
Sylvia ,,
Curruca ,, .
Sylvia ,, Bec-Jin à tête noire,
P enn. Brit. Zool. vol. i. p. 505.
Montagu, Ornith. Diet.
B ewick, Brit. Birds, vol. i. p. 258.
F lem. Brit. An. p. 70.
Selby, Brit. Ornith. vol. i. p. 209.
J enyns, Brit. Vert. p. 108.
Gould, Birds of Europe, pt. iii.
Temm. Man. d’Ornith. vol. i. p. 201
Curruca. Generic Characters.— Bill rather stout, shortj upper mandible
slightly curved at the point, which is emarginated; gape with a few hairs.
Nostrils basal, lateral, oval, exposed. Wings of moderate size ; the first quill-
feather very short, the second longer than the fifth, the third the longest in the
wing. Legs with the tarsus short, but longer than the middle toe; the toes and
claws short, and formed for perching.
T h e B l a c k c a p is a true Sylvan Warbler, visiting this
country from the South and East every spring, arriving about
the middle of April, sometimes rather earlier, depending on
the state of the season, but never, according to Mr. Selby,
till the larch trees are visibly green; and it leaves us again,
with an occasional exception, in September. Mr. Lewin,
some years ago, it is recorded, shot a Blackcap near Dartford
in the month of January; and two or more instances have occurred
of specimens being obtained, and others heard, during
two recent successive winters, in the neighbourhood of Bristol.
Like the Nightingale, the males of this species, which are
readily distinguishable by their jet-black head, arrive some
days before the females ; and their song soon betrays their
retreat. They frequent woods, plantations, thick hedges,
orchards, and gardens. They are restless, timid, and shy;
and are no sooner observed, but they exhibit their anxiety to
gain some place of concealment by hopping from branch to
branch to a more secluded situation. The female is equally
cautious in selecting the spot for her nest, and does not
finally determine upon it till the expanding foliage promises
sufficient security, and sometimes even after having commenced
and abandoned a nest in two or three different
places. The nest is usually fixed in a bush about two or
three feet from the ground ; it is constructed of bents and
dried herbage, lined with fibrous roots mixed with hair.
The eggs are mostly five in number, of a pale greenish white,
mottled with light brown and ash colour, with a few spots
and streaks of dark brown ; they are nine lines in length by
seven lines in breadth. Some specimens of the eggs of the
Blackcap resemble those of the Garden Warbler, the bird
next to be described ; and they also occasionally assume a
reddish tinge, apparently the effect of partial incubation.
The male Blackcap is inferior only to the Nightingale in
the quality of his song. White has described the tones of