326 BRITISH BIRDS. 
the wall against which the fruit-trees are trained. The materials which 
compose the nest are dry grass, cobwebs, moss, and perhaps a few feathers, 
together with the wing-cases of various insects. It is lined with rootlets, 
a thick bed of hair, and occasionally a few feathers. Owing to the peculiar 
nature of the site, which affords so much support, the nest is small and 
but loosely put together. 
The Spotted Flycatcher sometimes builds its nest in very curious situa- 
tions, without the slightest attempt at concealment. When I used to go 
to a day-school we had to pass through a doorway that separated the 
garden from the shrubbery. The door itself had been taken away, but 
the iron hinges on which it formerly swung still projected from the brick- 
work. One day one of my schoolfellows pointed out to me a nest stuck 
behind the upper hinge, just out of our reach. I laughed at him when 
he told me that a bird had built it there, and pulled it down, telling him 
that some boy must have put it there for a freak. He, however, assured 
me that he had seen a bird fly from it, and climbed up and replaced the 
nest behind the hinge as well as he could. The next morning I myself 
saw the bird fly from the nest as we approached the doorway, and on 
climbing up I was astonished to find that the nest contained an egg of a 
Spotted Flycatcher. 
A very handsome nest of the Spotted Flycatcher in my collection is 
somewhat larger than usual, and resembles certain nests of the Robin. 
The lining contains no feathers, but is completely composed of fine 
dry grass and a few hairs. It is deeply cup-shaped and the frontage 
to the nest is broad. Externally it is chiefly composed of moss, long 
stems of water-plants, grass-blades, and leaves of herbage—now dry 
and withered, but evidently gathered in a green state. Here and there 
may be seen parts of dead leaves almost skeletonized and a few scraps of 
green lichens. Nests of this bird are sometimes composed largely of 
sticks and fibrous roots, and then they are usually warmly lined with wool 
and feathers. Each season the Spotted Flycatcher returns to the haunt 
of its choice and rears its brood for years im succession in one favoured 
place. Sometimes it will desert a locality for a season, especially if it is 
repeatedly disturbed, but afterwards return to it again. 
The eggs of the Spotted Flycatcher vary in number from four to six, and 
range from bluish white to pea-green in ground-colour, blotched, spotted, 
and clouded with various shades of reddish brown. Some eggs are so 
richly covered with spots as to hide the ground-colour, and resemble 
very closely certain varieties of Robin’s eggs ; others have the markings 
confined to a zone round the larger end; while many are more evenly 
marked and singularly clouded with a faint roseate tinge, which adds 
considerably to their beauty, but which soon fades after they are blown. 
They vary in length from ‘8 to *7 inch, and in breadth from *62 to °52 inch. 
