SPOTTED FJ,YCATCHER. 221 



It frequents woods, orchards, gardens and lawns, and is not 

 a little remarkable for the singularity of the places in which 

 it sometimes makes its nest. There is also very good 

 reason for believing that the same pair of birds return to 

 occupy the same spot for several years in succession. 



The more usual places for this bird's nest are, the smaller 

 twigs which grow from the bole of a large tree, the side of 

 a faggot-stack, a hole in a wall, or on a beam in an out- 

 building, whence arises one of its provincial names, that of 

 Beam-bird ; it also frequently fixes its nest on a branch of a 

 pear-tree, a vine, or a honeysuckle, when trained against a 

 building. Of three cup-shaped nests now before me, one is 

 formed on the outside of old dark-coloured moss, mixed with 

 roots, the lining of grass stems, with only two or three white 

 feathers ; the second has the bottom and outside of fresh 

 green moss, lined with a few grass bents, long horse-hairs, and 

 several mottled feathers ; the third is similar to the last on the 

 outside, but lined with long horse-hairs, wool, and feathers. 

 The labour and art bestowed by birds on the construction of 

 their nests have long been the theme of admiration ; but the 

 state of vegetation at the nest-building season of the year, 

 and the care manifested by birds generally in selecting a 

 place of security, render it difficult, excepting under very 

 favourable circumstances, to obtain a sight of the nest- 

 makers when at work. From what has been observed, how- 

 ever, it is believed that the female is generally the nest- 

 builder ; the male collects and brings to her the materials 

 required : long stems of grass, or long horse-hairs, are 

 interwoven by the bird fixing in one end, and then traversing 

 the edge of the nest, laying in the remainder as she makes 

 circle after circle. The eggs of the Spotted Flycatcher are 

 four or five in number, measuring from '83 to '66 by from 

 •6 to "51 in.; the ground-colour varying from french white 

 to pale greenish-blue, or being occasionally of a cream-colour 

 blotched and speckled with rusty, sometimes of a very deep 

 hue, or less frequently closely mottled with minute streaks 

 of pale rusty so as almost to hide the ground-colour. White 

 says, the female while sitting on the eggs is fed by the male 



