242 



THE Fr.YCATCnKR. 



On the occasion I rotor to, the nest was made, and the eggs laid, late 

 in May:, but as the same pair, I presume, built there for many successive 

 seasons, I watched them place almost all the materials for their nest, and 

 bring forth broods, over and over again. They were very tame, never 

 being molested, except that I occasionally took a peep at the eggs or 

 young, which they did not mind, and the nest was just over the door, 

 where we were going in and out all day. How often I have sat learning 

 my Latin lesson, and watching them bring small bits of wool, and roots, 

 and moss, and fix and weave and mould it to their will; how I have 

 observed that they alwaj-s perched on the same twig, to await the time 

 when we were not actually at the door to continue their architecture, 

 how certain posts of vantage were invariably frequented by them from 

 which to watch for and take their prey. Our lawn was then a sort of 

 orchard, filled with fruit-trees, and certain boughs of these were always 

 their resort. There they sat, the twig enveloped in their breast feathers, 

 for their little dark legs are very short, and peering round with quick and 

 scrutinizing eye in all directions, until they saw something, I suppose worth 

 flying after, for the air was constantly filled with insects, and as they were 

 not always catching, but only every two or three minutes, they must 

 necessarily have exercised some degree of discrimination. Ever and anon 

 they would attempt a noble prey, in the shape of a moth or butterfly, 

 and it was curious to observe how they were sometimes for a moment 

 baffled, and how they flew round and dodged what they could not at once 

 seize, but he never escaped them; and when they were feeding their infant 

 brood, all these prizes were spitted, as it were, upon the upper mandible 

 of their bills, and made a perceptible bunch upon it, as you might easily 

 perceive. 



It happened in the case I refer to that there was a nice little ledge, upon 

 which the nest was quite secure, and rendered still more so by a lateral 

 branch of the honeysuckle, which well shielded it, as with a protecting 

 arm. Indeed the position was well chosen; neither was it exposed to the 

 sun's rays, as Gilbert White relates of some short-sighted songsters, who 

 hovered all day over their young with outspread bills and gaping mouths 

 to protect them from the heat, for here were plenty of green leaves, and 

 everything indeed as long as they stayed, whicla was for several summers, 

 went on very prosperously, and they usually brought out two broods each 

 year. The eggs, which were ordinarily five in number, are not unlike those 

 of the Redbreast, but smaller and more tapering, and the young, like most 

 summer visitants, very speedily attained maturity, although occasionally one 

 unluckily fidgetted until he fell from the nest, and in this way never 

 survived to wing his way to other realms; and you may imagine, as a 

 little boy, and with my feelings, what a lament was made over such an 



