170 MUSCICAPID/E. 



siderecl only as a summer visiter to this country, arriving in 

 April, and quitting it to go further south in September. It 

 appears to be most plentiful in the vicinity of the Lakes of 

 Cumberland and Westmoreland ; and in some of its habits, 

 particularly in its mode of feeding, as also in the nature of 

 its food, it resembles the well-known Spotted Flycatcher ; 

 but with these distinctions, — that it builds in the holes of de- 

 cayed oaks or pollard trees, and, as Mr. T. C. Heysham of 

 Carlisle has informed me, is exceedingly noisy and clamorous 

 when its retreat is approached, and that it lays sometimes as 

 many as eight eggs. 



" In the season of 1830, a pair had a nest in the identical 

 hole where this species had bred for four successive years. 

 On the 14th of May this nest contained eight eggs, arranged 

 in the following manner : one lay at the bottom, and the 

 remainder were all regularly placed perpendicularly round the 

 sides of the nest, with the smaller ends resting upon it, the 

 effect of which was exceedingly beautiful." The eggs from 

 different nests are found to vary greatly in size. 



Its nest is a loose assemblage of roots and grass, with a 

 few dry leaves, dead bents, and hair : the eggs are eight 

 lines and a half long, by six lines and a half in breadth, 

 and of a uniform pale blue colour. The young are hatched 

 about the first or second week in June. Mr. Blackwall says, 

 that the notes of the male are varied and pleasing ; and 

 Mr. Dovaston compares its song to that of the Redstart. 



Pennant mentions one example of this bird killed near 

 Uxbridge in Middlesex ; and I have a young male of the year 

 killed in September, much nearer to London. It has been 

 noticed in Surrey, Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk, Yorkshire, North- 

 umberland, and Durham. On the southern coast, Mr. 

 Blyth has seen a specimen that was shot in the Isle of 

 Wight : it has occurred also, though rarely, in Dorsetshire 

 and Devonshire. 



