107 



THE SPOTTED FLYCATCHER. 



Muscicapa grisola, L. 



The Spotted Flycatcher entered the country along the whole 

 of the south coast, but chiefly on the western half. 



A single bird was reported to have been seen in west 

 Sussex as early as the 3rd of April and a pair w-ere noted 

 in Cornwall on the 10th. During the remainder of the 

 month and the first ten days of May small numbers 

 straggled into the country, but their actual dates of landing 

 can hardly be specified, though they were reported from many 

 counties in the western half of the kingdom and alonor the 

 south coast, A pair were nesting in Westmoreland as early 

 as the Gth of May. 



The first immigration of any magnitude occurred between 

 the 8th and 12th of May, and a second took place between the 

 16th and the 20th, the majority of the birds landing on the 

 western halt of the south coast. These two movements 

 evidently contained the bulk of our British nesting-birds, and 

 with their advent the numbers increased throughout the 

 country, first in south Wales and the south-eastern counties 

 and thence northwards into Anglesey, the Isle of Man and 

 Scotland on the one hand and into East Anglia on the other. 



By the middle of the month the birds had begun to settle 

 down and were reported as nesting in Kent and Surrey on the 

 13th and 15th and in Shropshire and Derbyshire on the 17th 

 and 19th, while nests with eggs were found in Yorkshire on 

 the 19th and in Essex on the 22nd. 



Further arrivals were recorded in Essex during the first 

 week in June. 



Ill' 



