26 Baby Birds at Home 



of Spotted Flycatchers will return season 

 after season to inhabit some favourite breed- 

 ing haunt. 



The nest of this species is made of straws, 

 rootlets, moss, hair, feathers and rabbit's 

 down. It is built on the branches of fruit 

 trees trained against walls, holes in walls, on 

 ledges of rock, on the stumps of broken trees, 

 on the ends of beams projecting from old 

 houses, and in recesses in the trunks of trees 

 caused by the wood decaying. 



The eggs, as a rule, number five, of a 

 greyish or light green colour, marked with 

 faint red or reddish brown. 



Nestling Flycatchers keep their parents 

 busy procuring winged insects for them, and 

 when you are near one of the old birds in 

 the act of seizing a fly, you can actually 

 hear its bill snap as it closes on the luckless 

 creature. No sooner has a sufficient collec- 

 tion of flies been made than away hies the 

 parent bird to the nest with them. Then 

 there is great excitement. Every neck is 

 stretched, and every mouth is widely opened 

 in expectation of a dainty morsel. Some- 

 times bees and quite large moths are brought 

 along. 



