SPOTTED FLYCATCHER. 69 
FAMILY MUSCICAPID. 
SPOTTED FLYCATCHER. 
MUSCICAPA GRISOLA, Linnzeus. 
Old Man, Wall Robin. 
The Spotted Flycatcher is a summer visitor, usually 
arriving about the middle of May. It is generally 
distributed in the lowlands, and occurs in the valleys 
of the Goyt and Dane, and in many of the wooded 
cloughs on the hillsides. 
This bird sometimes rears its young in the nests of 
other species. On May 31st, 1857, Mr. R. Holland 
observed a Spotted Flycatcher leave the half-finished 
nest of a House Martin which had been built under the 
eaves of his house at Mobberley. On ascending to the 
nest, he found that the Flycatchers had constructed a 
nest on the foundations commenced by the Martins, 
and had laid one egg. Three weeks later, he noted 
that the Martins had recommenced building operations, 
and had nearly finished the outside of the nest, the 
Flycatcher’s nest being still within, but empty. Mr. 
Holland did not observe whether the Flycatchers had 
brought off a brood, or had been driven away by the 
Martins, but it is clear that three weeks after the 
Flycatcher’s egg was in the nest the Martins were again 
in possession.! 
In this instance a nest was superadded by the Fly- 
catchers to the foundations built by the Martins; but in 
the following case, noticed by the Rev. C. Wolley-Dod 
at Malpas, no nest was constructed by the Flycatchers, 
a Swallow’s nest of the previous year being used without 
1 Science Gossip, vol. iv. p. 89. April 1868. 
