PIED FLYCATCHER. 245 



tree, though seldom to the same perch, without uttering a note. 

 The alarm is not unlike that of its relative, but the female is 

 said to have a Chaffinch-like whit. The males go straight to 

 the old haunts, often to the old nesting hole, but there is com- 

 petition and fighting for possession ; it will defend its nesting 

 site boldly, attacking even larger species, though away from the 

 nesting site I have seen it defeated by a Spotted Flycatcher. 



The nest has been found in masonry, but a hole in a decay- 

 ing tree or stump is the usual site ; the entrance is small except 

 when the old hole of a Woodpecker is used. A common site is 

 near running water, according to most accounts, but it could 

 not easily be far away in the Lakeland valleys ; I have found it 

 in a gnarled stump overhanging Ulleswater and in a thorn 

 many yards away from any stream. The nesting material — 

 grass, moss, leaves and a little hair or wool — is loosely inter- 

 woven, cohesion being unnecessary in a hollow. Five to eight 

 pale blue eggs (Plate 84) are laid in the latter half of May or 

 early in June. By the end of August some of the birds are 

 moving south ; early in September I have seen numbers 

 together on the east coast. An October Pied Flycatcher is 

 uncommon. 



There are two moults, that in early spring being partial, 

 but altering the bird's appearance considerably. The male in 

 summer is black on the upper parts, with the forehead, border 

 of the tail, a large but variable patch on the wing and the whole 

 of the under parts white. The bill and legs are black, the irides 

 dark brown. The parts black in the male are olive'-brown in 

 the female, she has no white on the forehead, and the patch on 

 the wing is smaller ; her under parts are less pure and are tinged 

 with buff on the breast and flanks and slightly spotted with 

 brown. After the autumn moult the sexes are similar, dark 

 brown replacing the black of the male ; his white spots are 

 partly obscured and the under parts are suffused with buff. 

 Mr. Witherby has pointed out the sexual distinctions at this 



