THE SPOTTED FLY-CATCHER 261 



the eggs out of the nest and broke them. It is fond of selecting some human habitation for 

 the locality in which it builds its nest, and its titles of Beam Bird and Wall Bird have been 

 given to it because it is in the habit of making its home on beams or the holes of walls. The 

 branches of a pear, apricot, vine, or honeysuckle are favorite resorts of the Spotted Fly- 

 catcher, when the tree has been trained against a wall. The bird seems to be in the habit of 

 returning to the same spot year after year ; and as in one case the same locality was occupied 

 for a series of twenty consecutive years, it is most probable that the young may have suc- 

 ceeded to the domains of their parents. 



The nest is generally round and cup-shaped, and is made of fine grasses, moss, roots, hair, 

 and feathers, the harder materials forming the walls of the nest, and the softer being employed 

 as lining. 



I once watched one of these birds in the act of building her nest, and was greatly inter- 

 ested by the manner in which the business was conducted. First she arranged a rather large 

 bundle of fine dry grass in the thick fork of some branches, and having pecked it about for 

 some little time as if to shake it up regularly, she sat in the middle of it, and by a rapid 

 movement of her wings spun round and round like a top, so as to produce a shallow, cup-like 

 hollow. She then fetched some more grasses, and after arranging them partly around the 

 edge and partly on the bottom, repeated the spinning process. A few hairs and some moss 

 were then stuck about the nest, and woven in very neatly, the hairs and some slender 

 vegetable fibres being the threads, so to speak, with which the moss was fastened to the nest. 



In working out the long hairs and grasses, she generally moved backwards, laying them 

 with her bill, and continually walking round the nest, a circumstance which has also been 

 noted by Mr. Yarrell. I cannot say, however, whether, as is related by that writer, the male 

 brings all the materials, nor can I give any further personal description of the architectural 

 powers of the bird, as when the nest had reached the stage which has been described, I was 

 forced to return home, and on my next visit the nest was finished and the mother bird sitting in 

 it. I was close to the bird during her labors, being sheltered from observation by a thick bush and 

 the trunk of an ivy-covered tree, and could even see the color of the bright, glancing eyes, and 

 note the self-satisfied ruffle of her feathers whenever she had made a stroke to her satisfaction. 



The eggs of the Spotted Fly-catcher are four or five in number, and their color is a very 

 pale bluish-white, spotted with ruddy speckles. As the nest is made at so late a period of the 

 year, being but just begun when some birds have hatched their first brood, there is not often 

 more than a single family in the course of the season. Sometimes, however, it has been known 

 to hatch and rear a second brood in safety. The young are seldom hatched until the tenth or 

 twelfth of June, and they seem to follow their parents longer than is the case with most birds. 



The food of the Spotted Fly-catcher is almost, if not exclusively, composed of insects, 

 mostly flies and other winged members of the insect world. It seldom descends to the ground 

 for the purpose of procuring its prey, nor does it seem to pick caterpillars off the leaves and 

 branches, but, standing on some chosen perch, it darts at the passing insects, and returns to 

 the same spot. Fruit seems to form no part of the Fly-catcher's food, although it has often 

 been observed on the fruit-trees, having in all probability been attracted to the tree by the 

 many winged insects which feed on fruit. 



The general color of the Spotted Fly-catcher is a delicate brown on the upper parts of the 

 body, the quill-feathers of the wings and tail being, as is usually the case, of a blacker hue 

 than the feathers of the back. There are a few dark spots on the top of the head, and the 

 tertial feathers of the wings are edged with light brown. The breast is white, with a patch of 

 very light dull brown across the upper portion, and both the chin and breast are marked with 

 dark-brown longitudinal streaks. Upon the sides and flanks the dull white deepens into a 

 yellowish brown. The total length of this bird is about five inches and a half. When young, 

 the plumage is largely spotted with buff and brown of different tints. This species has no 

 song, but only a few low twittering notes. 



THE other species of European Fly-catchers is much more rare than the bird just described, 

 and may easily be distinguished from it by the peculiarity of plumage from which it derives 



