92 The Scottish Naturalist. 



That birds do return to their former place of abode 

 has been proved in numerous instances to be a fact 

 beyond doubt, and one author* records that the Swal- 

 low, by means of certain marks, has been known to take 

 possession of the same nests for eighteen summers in succes- 

 sion. The late Mr. Saxby, with reference to the Corn Bunting, 

 a winter visitant in Shetland, affirms "that the same flocks 

 visit the same localities year after year for several winters in 

 succession, and that an individual having a large white mark 

 on the back appeared at Halligrath with the first flocks as 

 regularly as the year came round "t; and Mr. Gould, in his 

 magnificent work on the Birds of Great Britain, so graphically, 

 and so beautifully brings before us the return of the little 

 Spotted Flycatcher to the same spot year after year 

 that I cannot resist the temptation of quoting it : — 

 " As the Wheatear," he says, '' is the earliest of our spring 

 wanderers, so is the Spotted Flycatcher the latest. May is 

 generally far advanced before its upright form may be seen 

 on the railing before our window ; yesterday it was not there, 

 this morning it has made its appearance as suddenly as if 

 it had dropt from the clouds, or descended from the heavens. 

 With the tamest of dispositions this solitary mute may be seen 

 perched on some elevated position from morning to night ; 

 here it watches any passing insect, and when his full black eye 

 detects one he likes, he sallies forth with a graceful flight, 

 captures it with a snap of its broad mandibles, and returns 

 again to its accustomed perch. Supposing it to be as late 

 as the middle of May before the Spotted Flycatcher commences 

 its nesting duties, there will still be time for it to rear one 

 or two broods, which will have acquired sufficient strength 

 before fly-life is extinct, to perform a migration over the sea to 

 the distant land of Africa, in the northern part of which country 

 both adults and young spend the winter, and intuitively retrace 

 their steps in the ensuing spring. The pair which built their nest 

 over the door post, or against the cherry tree of the garden wall, 

 return again, should no accident befall them, to the very spot, 

 to greet and to be greeted once more. Surely it needs but a 

 moment's thought, but a moment's consideration, to regard 

 these little travellers with interest. Let us contemplate for an 

 instant the distance they have travelled, the journeys they have 



* Pouchct. L'Univers. f Birds of Shetland, p. 95. 



