THE SPOTTED FLYCATCHER. 



MUSCICAPA GEISOLA. 



Upper plumage ash-brown ; feathers of the head marked with a central dark 

 line ; under parts Avhite, the sides marked with longitudinal brown streaks ; 

 flanks tinged Avith red. " Length six inches ; breadth ten inches. Eggs bluisli 

 white, mottled with reddish spots, which are deepest in colour towards the 

 larger end. 



There are few birds with whose haunts and habits we are 

 more familiar than those of the common Flycatcher. In 

 the wooded parts of England there is scarcely a country 

 house, perhaps, which has not in its neighbourhood at 

 least a single pair of these birds, who, though their stay 

 with us is but short, become as necessary appendages of 

 the garden during the summer months as the Eedbreast is 

 in winter. They have neither song to recommend them 

 nor brilliancy of colouring ; yet the absence of these quali- 

 ties is more than compensated by the confidence they 

 repose in the innocent intentions of the human beings 

 ■whose protection they claim, by their strong local attach- 

 ments, and by their unceasing activity in the pursuit ol 



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