l6o PIED FLYCATCHER. 



on migration. In Ireland an adult female was shot by Mr. 

 R. Warren at Moyview, co. Sligo, on April 19th 1875, and since 

 1886 six examples have been killed by striking against the Tearaght, 

 Fastnet, and Tuskar lighthouses (Barrington). 



A wanderer to the Freroes, the Pied Flycatcher breeds regularly up 

 to 69° N. lat. in Scandinavia, 65° in Finland, and about 60° in 

 Northern Russia as far as the Ural Mountains ; southward, in suitable 

 wooded localities, throughout the greater part of Europe down to the 

 centre of Spain ; eastward, as far as Palestine, while it has been 

 met with in Northern Persia. In Algeria it is said to be a resident ; 

 its migrations extending to the Canaries, as well as down the west 

 side of Africa to the Gambia and on the east to Egypt. 



The nest is generally placed in a fairly deep hole of a tree in thin 

 or detached groves of oaks, birches, ashes, alders or aspens, the same 

 area being resorted to in successive seasons ; occasionally holes in 

 walls are utilized. It is made of dry grass and roots, with a lining of 

 hair ; the 6-9 eggs, laid from the middle of May to the first week in 

 June, are pale blue, with, occasionally, a few fine specks of reddish- 

 brown : average measurements "68 by "52 in. Like its congener, the 

 Pied Flycatcher feeds principally upon insects, but it does not so often 

 catch them on the wing, preferring to take up its position at the 

 extremity of a dead bough, whence it can dart upon them in the grass 

 beneath ; and it is frequently to be seen among the highest branches 

 of forest trees (H. A. Macpherson). The note is tzii-tzit-tzif, trui, 

 trui, trui. 



The adult male in breeding-plumage has the upper parts black, 

 with a white frontal band, conspicuous white outer margins to the 

 secondaries, and a mottled band of grey and white across the rump ; 

 under parts white; bill, legs and feet black. Length 5 in. ; wing 3"i in. 

 Less mature males show some white on the outer margins of the two 

 exterior pairs of tail-feathers. After the autumn moult the upper 

 parts are somewhat browner, but the white frontal patch is always 

 present. In the female the frontlet, wing-patches and under parts are 

 buffish-white, and the upper parts are olive-brown. The young bird 

 in nestling-plumage is mottled on the back like the Spotted Fly- 

 catcher, but the white on the wings is very conspicuous in the male. 

 The upper figure in the cut represents a male in breeding-plumage ; 

 the lower one a young male killed in September. 



The AVhite-collared Flycatcher, M. coildris, was figured by Gould 

 in his ' Birds of Great Britain,' but there is no proof of its occur- 

 rence in England. The male has a white frontlet and collar. 



