80 THE BIRDS OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



unable to go to Stamford at the time, and had no one 

 to send upon wliose identification of birds I could 

 depend, so I will merely add that the date of this 

 occurrence renders it doubly remarkable. 



25. SPOTTED FLYCATCHER. 



Musclcapa gr'isola. 



This little summer visitor is so common and so well 

 known in our county that a very few words will 

 suffice with regard to it. In our neighbourhood it is 

 generally known as " Cobweb; " why, I cannot well 

 say, unless it may be on account of that material 

 being occasionally used in the exterior of the nest. 

 In some notes on the arrival of summer migrants, 

 kindly supplied to me by the Eev. H. H. Gillett, 

 formerly Rector of Wadenhoe, he gives the following 

 dates of the first appearance of this species at that 

 place :— 1872, May 19 ; 1873, May 17 ; 1874, June 12. 

 From my own recollection, I should say that the first 

 of the days above given is about the usual date in 

 this neighbourhood. A curious instance of the want 

 of observation in our country people came under my 

 notice with regard to this bird some few years ago. 

 I was fishing on the Nen close to this house early in 

 August, after a long absence from home, and my 

 attendant, who had been all his life employed about 

 the place as under gamekeeper, boatman, &c., was 

 anxious to give me all the natural-history news of the 

 neighbourhood, .and began by saying that a very 

 curious pair of birds had appeared in his cottage 



