2 2 Thh Spotted Flycatcher 



Persia, Turkestan, and Siberia as far as Irkutsk. In winter it visits India, Arabia, 

 and Africa to the Cape of Good Hope." 



In Great Britain the Spotted Fljxatcher breeds in suitable localities in everjr 

 county, but in England and Wales it is far more abundant, and more generally 

 distributed than in Scotland and Ireland : its distribution in the latter island is 

 certainly local, and it is probable that some counties are unsuited to its requirements. 



The colouring of this bird is decidedly sombre, its upper surface being brown, 

 slightl}' paler and with dark shaft-streaks on the crown ; the wings and tail darker 

 brown, with paler margins to the wing-coverts and secondaries : its under surface 

 is gre3'ish-wliite ; the breast and flanks slightly buff-brownish, and streaked with 

 brown, as also is the throat ; bill dark brown ; feet black ; iris dark hazel. The 

 female greatly resembles the male, but is somewhat browner and is more heavily 

 streaked on the underparts. The j-oung have buff centres to the feathers of the 

 upper surface, whilst the wing-coverts, secondaries, and tail-coverts are tipped with 

 this colour. 



The Spotted Flj'catcher haunts the out.skirts of woods, high hedges on the 

 borders of parks and pleasure grounds, plantations of hazel, orchards, and gardens, 

 and in siich places it breeds, usuall}- placing its nest either in a slight depression 

 in the branch of a tree, frequently near the trunk, or on the branch of a fruit-tree 

 trained against a wall ; it has, however, been known to build in crevices of the 

 bark of old trees, in trellis-work overgrown with creepers, and I have taken the 

 nest from the hollow top of a tree stump, from a tall hawthorn hedge, aud one in 

 ni}' collection was taken from a narrow hole in a wall.* The form of the nest 

 varies in accordance with its surroundings ; if placed upon a branch or in the top 

 of a hedge it is circular, if on a fruit-branch trained against a wall, semicircular, 

 aud the nest which I obtained from a hole in a wall was of the exact shape of a small 

 slipper ; the materials of the nest also var}' somewhat, but they generally consist 

 of twigs and roots, or fine grasses, mixed with a quantity of green moss interwoven 

 with spiders' webs, and lined with fine grass, hair, and sometimes two or three 

 feathers. The eggs vary in number from three to six, five being the most usual 

 number, the ground colour being frequently pale pea-green, but sometimes bluish- 

 white, blotched, zoned, mottled or spotted with various depths of ferruginous red- 

 brown ; when the mottling is very dense the egg, excepting in its inferior size 

 and narrower shape, somewhat reminds one of that of the Robin, and when the 

 markings are chiefly represented by a zone near the larger end, it vaguely suggests 

 that of the Greenfinch. 



* It is said also to have beeu fouud among roots overhangiug water, and in metal gutters on roofs of 

 houses. 



