BLACK-CAP, the common English name for the Black-Cap Warbler, Der Manch of the Germans, Fauvette h Tete Noire of the French, Caponcm Gentile of the Italians, A tricapilla of Aldrovandus, Cornice airicapilla of Brinson, Metacilla atricapilla and Motaeilla morteltita of Gulch)) (the latter being the female), Sylria atricapilla of Latham and of &Thatch), and Curruca africapilla of Gould (' Birds of Europe ').
"Of all the birds," says Sweet, "that reside in or visit the British Islands there is none that can coma up to the present for song except the nightingale, and by some persons it is more admired than even that bird. Its arrival in this country is generally about the first week in April, and the earliest that I ever saw was on the 25th of March. They leave us again about the end of September, sometimes a strag gling one may be seen at the beginning of October; the latest I ever saw in a wild state was on the I5th of that month. When it first arrives in this country its chief food is tho early ripened berries of the ivy, and where those are there the black-cape are first to bo heard singing their melodious and varied song. By the time the ivy-berries are over the little green lame of the small moths will be getting plentiful, rolled up in the young shoots and leaves ; this then is their chief food until the strawberries and cherries become ripe; after that there is no want of fruit or berries till their return, and there in no sort of fruit or berry that is eatable or wholesome that they will refuse. After they have cleared the elder-berries in autumn they immediately leave us." Nor is Sweet singular in his eulogy. All agree in praising its melody. In Norfolk and in other places in Great Britain it is called the Mock Nightingale, and indeed, like the nightingale, it continues its song far into the night. Bechstein, who has paid so much attention to the song of birds, says that it rivals the nightingale, and that many persons even give it the preference. " lf," adds that author, "it has less volume, strength, and expression, it is more pure, easy, and flute like in its tones, and its song is perhaps more varied, smooth, and delicate." This fruit-eating warbler is one of the Ficedula so much prized under the name of Beccafieo, though, as Bechstein well observes, every taste but that of the palate must be destroyed if this charming bird is caught for the table. [BEccAFico.] Its fondness for ivy-berries
seems to have been noticed in Italy, where it is permanent, and thence probably is derived one of its Italian names, Caponern d'Edera. The difference of plumage in the males and females, and in the young birds, which resemble the females, may possibly throw some light on the opinion which Willughby thus mentions :—" The ancients report," writes Willughby, " that the black-caps (Atricapillee) in the beginning of autumn are changed into Ficeduke and Beccaficos by the mutation of their voice and colour ; from whom, till I be assured by experience, I must crave leave to dissent." There can be little doubt that Willughby had in his mind that passage in the 49th chapter of the 9th book of Aristotle where the latter, speaking of the changes of birds, states that the Beecafieos (ItosaAt3e1) and the Black-Caps (MsXcrya6postlod) are changed into each other. Indeed Willughby thus heads his chapter on the Black-Cap :— " The Black-Cap Atricapilk seu Ficedula, Aldrov. ; called by the Grecka Iunals et MeAnsOmpos ; by the Italians Capo Negro." The passage in Aristotle may be thus freely translated :— " And in like manner beccaficos and black-caps, for these too are changed into each other. The bird is a beccafico at the commence ment of autumn and a black-cap at the decline of that season, and the only difference is in their plumage and their voice. That they are the same birds may be seen by observing them before the change is complete, and when they are neither one nor the other." Pliny too appears to have had this passage in his view, though he does not acknowledge it, when he wrote (lib. x. cap. 29) :—'• Alia ratio fieedulis. Nam formam simul coloremque mutant. Hoc nomen non nisi autumno habent, postea melancoryphi vocantur." Belon (ed. 1555, folio) makes the Bulfinch the Iuxalds and MfAtry sdevoor of the Greeks, and Beceafighi of the Italians, naming it also Atricapilla; but in a subsequent edition, enrichy de Quatrains' (small 4to. 1557), the Greek, Latin, and Italian names, identifying it as a Ficedula, as well as the name Atricapilla, are omitted; and the bird appears with the provincial synonyms of the Bulfinch. In other instances, in that of the very next bird for example, the Greek and Latin names given in the folio edition are retained.