1692 THE PERCHING BIRDS 



window, and even in an empty cup. The nest is made of moss, grass, and horse 

 hair, and the eggs are white, much blotched and suffused with light red. Although 

 not disdaining larger insects, the parent birds feed their offspring chiefly on flies, 

 caught in the well-known manner characteristic of the group. In the adult cock 

 the plumage of the upper parts is uniform brown, with dark central lines to the 

 feathers of the crown of the head; the wings and tail are likewise brown, while 

 the sides of the head and under parts are dull white, the breast being streaked with 

 gray. 



Spending the summer in central and northern Europe, and passing 

 16 F] . on migration through the Spanish peninsula in April, the pied fly- 

 catcher (Af. atricapilla} associates its presence with scenes of pictur- 

 esque beauty in many lands. The male possesses a sweet song, which commences 

 like that of the great tit, and then passes into a sweet strain suggestive of that of 

 the common redstart. The constancy with which a pair of pied flycatchers will 

 often return to the same nesting hole, during a period of several successive years, 

 is one of the most remarkable traits in its character. The nest is sometimes built in 

 a chink of a stone wall or ruined building; the stump of a felled tree often supplies a 

 convenient hole, while sometimes we may find a nest in a birch tree at from four to 

 seven feet from the ground. Another couple will be found to have seized a fissure 

 in one of the dead limbs of a tall Scotch fir, and yet another nest may be in the hol- 

 low branch of an ash tree, while a decayed thorn bush sometimes holds the nest for 

 several seasons. The nest is only slightly put together, composed almost entirely 

 of small fibrous roots and dried grass, always lined with a little hair, and generally 

 a few decayed leaves on the outside. The eggs, which vary in number from five 

 to six or even seven, are of a pale green, and so closely resemble those of the redstart 

 that it is frequently difficult to distinguish them unless they are contrasted together. 

 The males soon after their arrival will frequently perch for a considerable time upon 

 a branch of some decayed tree, constantly repeating their lively song between their 

 sallies in pursuit of passing insects; but the females are somewhat coy, and rather 

 shun the other sex. Pied flycatchers are birds of strong passion, and do not hesi- 

 tate to fight for the love of their female companions; but paired couples are devotedly 

 attached to one another. So long as the hen is sitting upon her eggs, her mate 

 caters to supply her appetite with constant activity, and when the young are hatched 

 the old birds are devoted to them*, the female feeding them at more frequent inter- 

 vals than her companion. While the call note of the male somewhat resembles the 

 sound produced by clattering together two pebbles, the female has a cry like that of 

 a hen chaffinch. Individuals breeding in districts where woodpeckers are plentiful 

 frequently adopt the deserted holes of the latter birds for their own nests. The pied 

 flycatcher rarely spends more than three months upon its breeding grounds, and 

 long before the trees have begun to change from green to red and orange, the pied 

 flycatchers in England slip quietly away almost unnoticed, to seek an asylum on the 

 southern side of the Mediterranean. In Switzerland, however, and other parts of 

 Central Europe they seem more loath to bid farewell to the scene of their summer 

 life, and in the former country they are often to be seen poised upon the lower 

 branches of the walnut trees. In the summer they obtain much of their prey upon 



