PIED FLYCATCHER. 527 



as in the Flycatcher's nest now before us, there is not a single 

 sprig of moss." The alleged dilFerences in the tints of the 

 plumage, some being " said to be mixed with grey on the 

 upper parts, or spotted with white on the rump or upper tail 

 coverts ; others having white on the three exterior feathers of 

 the tail ; and some having only the outer feather marked with 

 white," were not accounted for or properly described ; and as 

 the " young birds at first resemble the female, and in their 

 change of plumage the males have all the intermediate shades 

 from brown to black, this has probably given rise to an opinion 

 that the male changes his plumage in the winter, and becomes 

 like the female." 



A Carlisle correspondent in the Magazine of Natural History, 

 Vol. Ill, 173, gives the following succinct account of it. " The 

 migration of this species appears to be principally confined to 

 the northern counties, as it is seldom observed beyond York- 

 shire, and rarely seen in the south of England, although it has 

 occasionally been met with in Norfolk, Suffolk, IMiddlesex, 

 Surrey and Dorsetshire. In some parts of Westmoreland it is 

 very plentiful, especially in the beautiful and extensive woods 

 surrounding Lowther Castle, the magnificent and princely re- 

 sidence of the Earl of Lonsdale, where we have seen it in very 

 great numbers, and where it has bred unmolested and almost 

 unknown for years. On the contrary, we have reason to think it 

 has not resorted to the vicinity of Carlisle more than five or six 

 years, and, as far as we have yet been able to ascertain, only to 

 one locality, where it is evidently upon the increase. In this 

 situation the males generally arrive about the middle of April, 

 the females not until ten or fifteen days afterwards. They 

 commence nidification early in May, and the young are ex- 

 cluded about the first or second week in June. We have 

 hitherto invariably found their nests in the hole of a tree, 

 sometimes at a considerable height, occasionally near the sur- 

 face of the ground, and, for two successive years, in the stump 

 of a felled tree. In texture and formation, the nest is very 

 similar to those of the Greater Pettychaps, Blackcap, and 

 White-throat, being only slightly put together, composed al- 

 most entirely of small fibrous roots and dried grass, always 



