Blackburn
a town and parliamentary borough of England, 21 miles N. N. W. from Manchester. It has a free grammar school, founded by Queen Elizabeth in 1557, a free school for girls, founded in 1765, and many other public schools; and a free library, a public park of 50 acres, etc. Blackburn is one of the chief seats of the cotton manufacture, there being upward of 110 mills as well as works for making cotton machinery and steam engines. Pop. (1917) 113,315.
BLACKCAP (sylvia atricapilla), a European passerine bird of the warbler family, six inches long, upper part of the head black, upper parts of the body gray with a greenish tinge, under parts more or less silvery white. The female has its hood of a dull rust color. The blackcap is met with in England from April to September. Its nest is built near the ground; the eggs, from five to six, are reddish-brown, mottled with a deeper color. It ranks next to the nightingale for sweetness of song. The The American blackcap is a species of titmouse (parus atricapillus), so called from the coloring of the head.