MUSCICAPIDA. 5B 
proved a treacherous foundation, for though it did 
very well for some time, yet when the bird began to 
sit steadily the weight gradually bent the matting, 
till at last both nest and eggs slipped off. Yarrell 
mentions one of these birds having built on the 
angle of a lamp-post in the streets of Leeds, and 
another which built on the top of a lamp in Portland- 
place. 
The Spotted Flycatcher constructs a neat little 
open nest, apparently of the materials that come 
easiest to hand, such as moss of various kinds and 
colours, leaves, bents of grass, roots, &c., lined with 
horse or cow hair or feathers. 
The food of the Spotted Flycatcher appears to 
be exclusively insects, and it may be seen all day 
perched on a twig, or iron railing, or a croquet-hoop 
is sometimes a very favourite perch, from whence it 
darts upon every insect that comes within sight. It 
is accused, though certainly wrongfully, of eating 
cherries and raspberries, as it frequents those fruit- 
trees for the sake of the insects that also frequent 
them; and though many of these birds have been 
killed in these trees, and their stomachs examined, 
no remains of fruit have ever been found. From the 
accusation of killing bees it is probably less easy to 
defend them. Gardeners, who are something like 
gamekeepers in their appreciation of the usefulness 
of birds, accuse these as well as all the rest of our 
summer visitors of fruit-eating: my own gardener, 
FR 
