SPOTTED FLYCATCHER. 323 
MUSCICAPA GRISOLA. 
SPOTTED FLYCATCHER. 
(Pxate 9.) 
Muscicapa muscicapa, Briss. Orn. ii. p. 357, pl. xxxv. fig. 3 (1760). 
Muscicapa grisola, Linn. Syst, Nat. i. p. 328 (1766); et auctorum plurimorum— 
Temminck, Macgillivray, Yarrell, Gray, Gould, Sundevall, Layard, Shelley, 
Newton, Sharpe, Dresser, (Hume), &c. 
Butalis grisola (Linn.), Bote, Isis, 1826, p. 973. 
Butalis africana, Bonap. Compt. Rend. xxxviii. p. 652 (1854). 
Muscicapa africana (Bonap.), Gray, Hand-l, B. i. p. 321 (1869). 
The Spotted Flycatcher is one of the latest of our summer migrants. A 
sombre, unassuming little species it is, and solitary and sedentary in its 
habits ; yet from its partiality for gardens, and its great familiarity, it is 
one of the best known of our summer birds of passage. Throughout Great 
Britain it is a common bird from May until September, breeding in every 
county, but becoming rather less numerous in Scotland and in the 
Channel Islands. Northwards the Spotted Flycatcher becomes rarer 
and far more local in its distribution, and on the islands of Orkney 
and Shetland it is very rarely seen. Thompson describes it as a regular 
summer visitant to some parts of Ireland, and perhaps to suitable 
localities throughout the island; it is, however, but very locally distri- 
buted, even in those counties in which it is found, as Cork, Kilkenny, 
Tipperary, Clare, Dublin, and those in the north-east part of Ulster. 
Throughout the European continent and the islands of the Mediterranean 
it is a very common bird, and, for the most part, a regular summer 
migrant. It breeds in tolerable abundance in Scandinavia, as far north 
as Troms6. In Russia it ranges as far north as Archangel, and is a 
common species in Central Russia, but does not range far north in the 
Ural district. Harvie-Brown and I did not meet with it in the Petchora ; 
but my collectors have sent me skins from Krasnoyarsk. Throughout the 
rest of Europe it is a common bird, although in some localities it is far 
more numerous than in others. It has not yet, however, been recorded 
from Greenland, Iceland, or the Faroes. It breeds in great numbers in 
Palestine and Turkey in Asia, and was met with by De Filippi and 
Blanford in Persia, the latter gentleman remarking its exceptional abun- 
dance in certain localities on the highlands of that country. It is also 
found in Arabia. It is recorded as breeding throughout Turkestan, and 
has at least occurred as far to the east as Lake Baikal. A few specimens 
occasionally wander into Western Continental India during the winter 
Y2 
