28 OUR RARER BRITISH BREEDING BIRDS. 



out to be a Pied Fly-catcher, which I watched for 

 several hours. His mate was not far away, and 

 together they wandered from one part of the garden 

 to another, but never left it for any length of time. 



Although the Pied Fly-catcher generally resorts 

 to wild out-of-the-way places in which to breed, it 

 often takes up its quarters in some garden close 

 by a much-frequented roadside. 



It builds in a hole in a tree or wall, and occasion- 

 ally in a cliff, but generally at no great height from 

 the ground. I have seen four or five nests in the 

 two first-mentioned kinds of situation, and none of 

 them were more than seven or eight feet high. Our 

 illustrations were secured in the Towy Yalley. After 

 the decayed stump and its surroundings had been 

 photographed I took a piece of the rotten wood in 

 front of the nest away in such a manner that when 

 the eggs had been figured it could be replaced with- 

 out doing the site any appreciable injury. 



The nest is made of moss, dry grass, dead leaves, 

 and hair used as an internal lining. Our friend Dr. 

 Salter, who has had a good deal of experience in 

 regard to the breeding habits of the species, says 

 that its nest may always be distinguished from that 

 of the Kedstart by the absence of feathers, and such 

 has certainly been the case in the limited number 

 of nests I have examined. Whilst out with Dr. 

 Salter one day, he showed us a decayed tree trunk 

 from which he had taken the eggs of a Greater 

 Spotted Woodpecker. Upon examining the hole 

 we found it occupied by the nest of a Pied Fly- 

 catcher, and that the Woodpecker had hewn herself 

 a fresh home a few inches higher up, and a Great 

 Tit had occupied a hole on the opposite side of 

 the stump. 



The eggs of the species under notice number from 



