52 BIRDS OF SOMERSETSHIRE. 
I know, calls them all “ Whitethroats,” and says he 
can keep nothing for them. 
The Spotted Flycatcher is so well known that a 
very slight description will be sufficient. The beak 
is darkish horn; eyes hazel; head streaked dark 
greyish brown and white; all the rest of the upper 
parts light greyish brown; the greater wing-coverts 
and tertials are a rather darker shade, narrowly 
edged with lighter; primary and secondary quills 
and tail the same darker shade; throat and breast 
white, streaked with the same colour as the back; 
rest of the under parts white; legs, toes and claws 
black. 
The Spotted Flycatcher probably derives its name 
of “spotted” from the young birds, which are really 
spotted, each feather on the upper parts having a 
buif-coloured tip; and the ends of the greater wing- 
coverts form a wood-brown bar across the wing. 
The ground colour of the egg of the Spotted Fly- 
catcher is a sort of dull green; it is, however, so 
much smeared and speckled with dull brick-dust 
red that the ground colour can searcely be seen. 
These eggs vary a good deal, both in marking and 
shape: in some eggs I took from one nest the 
eround is a light green, with only a few smears of 
very light brick-dust; one was without any smears 
at all: the eggs in that nest varied much from 
the usual shape, being nearly round instead of 
oblong. 
