WAGTAILS, FLYCATCHERS, ETC. 51 



much interested in a pair of flycatchers with 

 their little family of three. One of the old 

 birds would spend its time catching flies for 

 the young ones, whilst the other rested, sit- 

 ting quite unconcerned by itself on the rails. 

 When the working parent brought a fly to 

 one of the family the other two would hurry 

 up, and there was constantly a small crowd 

 of four gesticulating little birds in one part 

 or other of the lawn. Between the intervals 

 of being fed the young birds learnt to forage 

 for themselves, not, I noticed, flying off the 

 ground after insects, but running after them 

 on the grass. These five birds stayed with 

 us until September gth. They often flew 

 down from the trees to catch flies on the 

 grass, and would hover in front of shrubs and 

 tall plants whilst they picked off the flies near 

 them. 



When flycatchers have been on the croquet 

 hoops and swallows were flying low, they 

 had not seldom to get pretty sharply out of 

 the way to avoid a collision, as the swallows 

 appeared purposely to fly at them. 



In 1908 we were fortunate enough to see 

 a bird here that is very seldom found in 

 Cheshire, namely, a pied flycatcher. It was 

 in the evening of August 25th that we saw 

 it. The strange little bird came quite close 

 up to the French window of the room in 

 which we were sitting, and we noticed plainly 

 the white patch on his wing. It did not seem 



