SPOTTED FLYCATCHER 141 



Her mate has tired of her love-play, for as soon as the 

 nestlings are abroad he leaves her, and becomes once 

 more a bachelor. When catching prey for this backward 

 brood she faces the prevalent breeze, and this enables 

 her to detect more readily the insects' drifting course." 



Dr. A. G. Butler gives an account of the variation 

 of nests taken in Kent in 1883 ; he says : "I took a cup- 

 shaped nest, apparently referable to the Spotted Fly- 

 catcher, in a high hawthorn hedge bounding a private 

 garden. This nest is formed of slender roots, moss, and 

 fine bleached grass-stems, compacted with spiders' web, 

 and is lined internally — but most thickly towards the 

 bottom — with reddish hair, amongst which a few coarse 

 black horse-hairs are twisted ; the cavity is unusually 

 deep. The nest contains only two eggs, rather large for 

 the species, of a pale green tint, sparsely spotted with 

 russet, excepting at the large end, where they become 

 denser and form a mottled patch. A nest in my collec- 

 tion of the shape of a slipper was found in a hole in a 

 wall in June, 1885, by my friend Mr. W. Drake, of 

 Kemsley, in Kent. The nest contained three eggs, which 

 completely filled the cavity." 



Captain J. D. Cameron includes this species in the 

 birds of Bethersden, and it was obtained on May 28, 1902, 

 near Orlestone. Mr. R. T. Filmer says: "A pair of 

 these birds built their nest and reared their young under 

 the door of the Ham Street signal-box in 1904. It was 

 not until June 28, 1906, that the first Flycatcher's nest 

 was found. It was placed on an old stump sticking 

 out of the side of a large elm tree, by the Royal Military 

 Canal below Ruckinge. The nest was so beautifully 

 formed and decorated with lichen, that at first sight it 

 appeared to be part of the stump." 



