SPOTTED GREY FLYCATCHER. 739 



MUSCICAPA GRISOLA. SPOTTED GREY FLYCATCHER. 

 Vol. Ill, p. 518. 



The cry of alarm or anxiety of this species \^ fee-chac-cJiac^ 

 which it utters incessantly when apprehensive of danger to its 

 nest. I have seen one watch a cat for a long time, flitting 

 about with extreme restlessness, and all the while emitting its 

 cry. This species does not merely pursue insects on wing, but 

 also searches for them on the twigs. I have seen it bathe by 

 fluttering on the leaves of a lime-tree after a heavy shower, and 

 the sight was a peculiarly pleasing one, the act having been 

 performed by numerous repetitions until the -plumage was all 

 draggled, when by fluttering and preening the bird began to 

 dry itself in the sunshine. Mr Harley informs me that when 

 the young can fly, and have just left the nest, they will sit all 

 of a row upon a rail, or the uppermost bar of a gate, and wait 

 for food from their parents. They receive it with joyous twit- 

 ters, and a tremulous movement of the wings. Both parent 

 birds feed their young. 



CARDUELIS SPINUS. SISKIN. Vol. I, p. 400. Vol. Ill, 



p. 702. 



I have the pleasure of presenting here a detailed account of 

 the Siskin's nest, mentioned in p. 702, as having been found in 

 Kincardineshire, by Mr William Mactier, an enthusiastic young 

 ornithologist, who has favoured me with the following notice : 

 " The nest which you got to-day I found on the 2od of April. 

 My attention was first drawn to it by the cry of one of the old 

 birds, which was hopping about in the neighbourhood. It 

 was placed in a larch tree about thirty feet from the ground, 

 and on the upper surface of a long projecting branch, near the 

 point, and at the place where it separated into two twigs. The 

 situation was not a very retired one, for it was within three 

 hundred yards of the house, and overhung a road by which 

 people occasionally passed. As there was great difficulty in 



