THE PERCHING BIRDS. 165 



14. The Flycatchers. 



The Spotted Flycatcher is an inconspicuous bird with 

 spotted white breast and the characteristic bristles at the 

 * Spotted base of the bill. From May to September, its 

 Flycatcher, range seems to extend throughout these islands. 

 It has been known to breed, according to Mr Harting and 

 others, in London parks. The insects on which it feeds 

 are captured on the wing and, after the style of the shrikes, 

 devoured on the perch. The nest, a compact structure of 

 moss, grass, and hair, sometimes lined with feathers, is 

 placed in holes in trees, or in more exposed situations, as, 

 for instance, in wall plum-trees or on beams ; and the bird 

 is known to return, like the nightingale and swallow, to its 

 old nesting-haunts, and also to avail itself of the old nests 

 of other birds. Eggs, 5, ^ inch; greenish white, with red 

 and purple spots. 



With us from April to September, the Pied Flycatcher 



breeds mostly in the northern counties, less in Scotland, and 



* Pied Fly- ^^^^ ^'^^^J occasionally found its way to Ireland. 



catcher. The back and legs are black, breast and fore- 

 head white. This bird feeds almost entirely on winged 

 insects, but it captures them by preference on the ground 

 or amid the branches. It has a more powerful and pleasing 

 song than the last. The nest, similar though less comi3act, 

 is found in holes in trees. Eggs, 5 to 9, over f inch ; pale 

 blue, sometimes speckled with brown. 



Redhreasted Flycatcher. — A small and rare winter 

 straggler that has occurred but nine times, chiefly in the 

 south-west. 



15. *The Swallow and Martins. 



[The three birds that come under this group (the swift, 

 popularly associated with them, is not even remotely con- 

 nected, belonging, indeed, to a different order) are all 



