PIED FLYCATCHER 481 



the two sides of the later continent. To Great Britain (and northern 

 Europe generally) the species is a very late visitor, not making its 

 appearance as a rule till well into May, when most of the summer 

 migrants are already busy at the work of incubation. Although 

 generally distributed, these flycatchers are less common in Scotland 

 than in the southern and midland counties of England, while to the 

 Orkneys and Shetlands they are only casual stragglers. In Ireland 

 the species, although somewhat local, breeds in every county. 



The title of spotted flycatcher, it may be remarked, is not a verj- 

 satisfactory one, since it refers only to the plumage of the young, which 

 is more profusely spotted than in other British flycatchers. The habits 

 of the species are those of the group in general ; but this particular 

 flycatcher resorts much to the neighbourhood of dwellings, not un- 

 frequently nesting in verandas or creepers on house walls. Iron fences, 

 rails, or bare branches form its favourite perches, whence it sallies after 

 passing insects in a characteristic manner, following them in their 

 rapid turns of flight until they are captured. Beetles form a consider- 

 able portion of its food, and the wing-cases and other indigestible parts of 

 these insects are cast up in the form of small hard pellets. When 

 insects are scarce, a flycatcher has been observed to seize and swallow 

 a worm from the ground ; and in Scandinavia these birds have been 

 known to eat berries of the mountain-ash. While perching, the bird 

 utters a characteristic call-note, like the sound produced by knocking 

 two stones together. The nest, which is always placed in a sheltered 

 situation — sometimes a fissure in the rough bark of a tree — is made of 

 moss and grass, lined with hair and rootlets, and is made externally to 

 correspond with its surroundings by means of pieces of lichen and cob- 

 web. The eggs, four to six in a clutch, vary in ground-colour from cream 

 to pale green, upon which are numerous spots and blotches of reddish 

 brown, with underlying markings of grey ; the markings sometimes 

 almost concealing the ground, but in other cases being aggregated at 

 the larger end. Despite the lateness of its arrival, this flycatcher has 

 been known to lay and hatch a second clutch of eggs in the original 

 nest. September is the usual month for departure, but very occasionally, 

 at any rate in Ireland, an individual may remain till October. 



_,.,_, ^ , A rarer and more local bird in Britain than the last, 



PlGu. FlVCatCn6P 



.„ . the pied flycatcher, on account of the marked 



.,, . difference in the plumage of the two sexes and the 

 atpicapiiia). .^ , . - 



uniformly coloured eggs, is frequently made the 



type of a distinct genus, under the name of Ficcdula atricapilla. 



2 I 



