SPOTTED FLYCATCHER. 155 



Family MUSCICAPID^. Genus MrsciCAPA. 



SPOTTED FLYCATCHER. 



MUSCICAPA GRISOLA, LiJUlCBUS. 



Single Brooded. Laying season, end of ]\Iay or June. 



British breeding area: The Spotted Flycatcher 

 is a wide-ranging species, and more or less commonly 

 distributed throughout the British Islands, nesting in 

 every part suited to its requirements. It does not 

 appear to visit the Hebrides (Skye excepted), nor to 

 breed in the Orkneys and Shetlands, and becomes rarer 

 and more local in the extreme north. 



Breeding habits : The Spotted Flycatcher is a late 

 migrant to our islands, arriving in its old haunts early 

 in May. Its principal breeding-haunts are the out,skirts 

 of woods, well-timbered parks, gardens, pleasure-grounds 

 (it still breeds in some of the London parks and open 

 spaces., orchards, and groves of trees. It is most 

 probable that this species pairs for life, and yearly 

 returns to an old accustomed spot to breed. It is not 

 in any way social, each pair keeping exclusively to 

 themselves in one particular haunt. The nest is made 

 in a great variety of situations, but generally in a snug 

 nook. It is often built on the horizontal branch of a 

 fruit tree trained along the wall, or on trel!is-work 

 supporting roses and creepers on the house side. My 

 old friend, the late Mr. Milner of Meersbrook Hall, 

 proudly pointed out to me a nest of this species made 

 in a ledge over his front door, and he assured me that 

 the birds built there every year. Other favourite sites 

 are in crevices of the bark, especially in wych elms, or 

 in shallow knot-holes, in holes in walls, or on a beam 



