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THE SPOTTED FLYCATCHER. 



exposed situations. It is sometimes very whimsical in the 

 selection of a nesting- place, and, as an instance of this 

 peculiarity, I may mention that, a few years ago, a pair 

 built in a tea-cup which had been left standing for some 

 weeks on the outside of the window-sill of one of the garden 

 offices at Milne Graden. During incubation the cup was 

 several times removed from the sill by the gardener to show 

 its contents to visitors, and yet, notwithstanding this dis- 

 turbance, the birds succeeded in rearing a brood of young in 

 the strange home which they had chosen. The nest is 

 composed of moss, small twigs, and roots, and is lined with 

 horse-hair, wool, and feathers. The eggs are four or five in 

 number, and vary in ground colour from bluish white to pale 

 greenish blue, blotched and speckled with reddish brown. 



The Spotted Flycatcher feeds exclusively on insects. 

 It has no note beyond a kind of faint chirp, like the 

 word " Egypt," which it utters at intervals. 



~Hf4'4'H-' 





