82 THE BIRDS OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



their brood in a standard rose-bush at the insertion of 

 the first branches, about three feet from the ground, 

 and within a yard of a much -frequented gravel-path 

 at Lilford, and in 1893 a brood was hatched out 

 within two feet of my head as I sat in my Bath- 

 chair in a favourite shady spot in our flower- 

 garden. 



26. PIED FLYCATCHER. 



Muscicapa atricapilla. 



Though I feel little doubt about once having seen 

 a male of this species close to Lilford, in the summer 

 of 1853, I only had a momentary and somewhat 

 distant glimpse of the bird, and cannot therefore 

 positively affirm that it was a Pied Flycatcher. 

 Mr. A. G. Elliot, so often previously mentioned, 

 informs me that he shot at and knocked down a bird 

 of this species near Barkston, but lost it in some long 

 grass. He does not give me the date of this occur- 

 rence further than that young pheasants were being 

 reared at the time. I must confess that the only 

 Barkston which I can find in the atlas appears to be 

 a village in Lincolnshire, which would hardly come 

 fairly within the limits to which I proposed to confine 

 myself in these notes. 



The Pied Flycatcher is a summer visitor to England, 

 and breeds regularly in several of our northern coun- 

 ties, especially the Lake district of Cumberland and 

 Westmoreland. It is not uncommon in certain parts 

 of North Wales, the only British locality in which I 

 have myself met with it. The nest is generally situ- 

 ated in the hole of a pollard willow or other tree, 



