6 SPOTTED FLYCATCHER. 
after these short sorties. Though so quiet a little bird, it 
will sometimes daringly attack any wanderer who seems likely 
to molest its ‘sacred bower,’ signifying first its alarm by a 
snapping of the bill. It is, like many other harmless birds, 
under the ban of the ionorant, and though its whole time 
is taken up in destroying insects which injure fruit, which 
it scarcely ever touches itself, it is accused of being a depre- 
dator, and too often suffers accordingly. It m ust, however, 
on the other hand, be admitted that some very trifling damage 
may be done by its destruction of bees, from which it has 
been given one of its trivial names. White, of Selborne, says 
that the female, while sitting, is fed by the male as late as 
nine o'clock at night. 
The following curious circumstance has been recorded of 
some young Flycatchers, which had been taken from a nest, 
and placed in a large cage, with some other birds of different 
species, among which was a Robin. The young birds were 
fed regularly “by one of their parents—the female; while her 
mate, who accompanied her constantly in her flight, used to 
wait for her, outside the window, either upon the roof of the 
house, or on a neighbouring tree. Sometimes the little birds 
were on the top perch in the cage, and not always near 
enough to the wires of the cage to be within reach of the 
parent, when she appeared with food; but the Robin, who 
had been for some time an inhabitant of the cage, where he 
lived in perfect harmony with all its associates, and had from 
the first taken great interest in the little Flycatchers, now 
perceiving that the nestlings could not reach’ the offered food, 
but sat with their wings fluttering, and their mouths open, 
anxious to obtain it, flew to the wires, received the insects 
from the mother bird, and put them into the open mouths 
of the nestlings. This was repeated every succeeding day, as 
often as his services were req juired. 
Its food consists almost exclusively of insects, which after 
eapturing in the manner already described, it generally holds 
for a short time in its bill before devouring. Occasionally a 
few cherries are consumed, but so seldom, that it is almost 
the most that can be said, that it makes ‘two bites’ of them. 
In feeding its young, two or three insects are frequently 
brought at a time. 
The note is a weak chirp. There is something in it whick 
attracts the attention. 
Nidification eommences immediately after the arrival of the 
