THE SPOTTED FLYCATCHER 77 
whither, they may have received the name Bohemian, because 
they resemble in their habits the wandering tribes of gipsies, who 
were formerly called indifferently Egyptians and Bohemians. 
Taken in this sense, the Bohemian or Wandering Waxwing, as it 
used to be called, is a name open to no exception. The plumage 
of the bird is silky, and that of the head is remarkable for forming 
a crest, and being capable of being elevated, as in the Cardinal. 
Its black gorget and tiara, the patches of white, yellow, and black 
described above, make it very conspicuous for colouring, and the 
singularity of its appearance is much increased by the appendages 
to its secondaries and tertiaries, which resemble in colour and sub- 
stance red sealing-wax. In very old birds these waxen appendages 
are also to be found at the extremities of the tail-feathers, being 
no more than the shafts of the feathers, condensed with the web. 
In its habits the Waxwing resembles the Tits. It feeds on 
insects, fruit, berries, and seeds. Its call-note is a twitter, which 
it rarely utters, except when taking flight and alighting. The 
Waxwing isa northern bird, and Dr. Richardson, the Arctic traveller, 
informs us that he one day saw a flock, consisting of three or four 
hundred birds, alight on one or two trees in a grove of poplars, 
making aloud twittering noise. One of its German names, Schnee- 
vogel (snowbird), was evidently given in this belief. It is some- 
times caught and caged, but has nothing but its beautiful colour- 
ing to recommend it. It is a stupid lazy bird, occupied only in 
eating and reposing for digestion. Its song is weak and uncertain. 
FAMILY MUSCICAPID: 
MuscICAPIDZ.—Nostrils more or less covered by bristly hairs 
THE SPOTTED FLYCATCHER 
MUSCICAPA GRISOLA 
Upper plumage ash-brown ; feathers of the head marked with a central dark 
line ; under parts white, the sides marked with longitudinal brown streaks ; 
flanks tinged with red. Length six inches; breadth ten inches. Eggs 
bluish 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 Red- 
breast is in winter. They have neither song to recommend them 
nor brilliancy of colouring ; yet the absence of these qualities is 
