264 THE FLYCATCHERS 



of the bar appears as an isolated patch, bounding the tips of the primary major 

 coverts ; in young birds it is wanting altogether. The under parts are pure white. 

 The female is olive-brown above, and lacks the white frontal bar ; the throat and 

 abdomen are white, the fore-neck, breast, and flanks olive-buff. The white patch 

 on the primaries is present in fully mature birds. The juvenile plumage differs 

 from that of the adult female in that the upper parts are mottled with white on the 

 crown and buff on the back, while the under parts are white, the feathers of the 

 fore-neck and fore-breast having dusky margins, giving a scale-like appearance, 

 [w. P. P.] 



2. Distribution. On the Continent the breeding range of this species 

 extends over the greater part of Europe, south of lat. 70 in Scandinavia, 65 in 

 Finland, and about 57 in the Urals. (In Greece and the Caucasus it is replaced 

 by another race, M. atricapilla semitorquala, which also breeds in Asia Minor and 

 Persia, while the Algerian and Tunisian form has also been separated.) The 

 southern limit extends to mid-Spain and Italy as well as the valley of the Lower 

 Danube, but does not include Hungary or South Russia. In the British Isles it is 

 local, and is chiefly found in Wales, in small numbers in Shropshire, commonly in 

 the Lake district, the West Riding of Yorkshire, Durham, and Northumberland, 

 but in parts of Merioneth and Lakeland is very plentiful in the wooded valleys. It 

 also breeds in Scotland, south of the Firths of Forth and Clyde, in small numbers, 

 and occasionally perhaps as far as the Moray basin. It does not nest in Ireland. 

 Sporadic instances of breeding in many of the midland and southern counties of 

 England are on record, but can only be regarded as exceptional, and require 

 thorough investigation. During the winter months it is found in Africa, migrat- 

 ing south along the west side to the Canaries, the Gold Coast, and the Congo, 

 while on the east side it is found in the Nile valley. [F. c. B. J.] 



3. Migration. A regular summer visitor, and an uncommon bird of passage. 

 As the breeding distribution of the summer visitant individuals is very local, they 

 naturally occur only as birds of passage in many districts. Quite apart from this, 

 there is a regular passage through the more easterly parts of our area, of birds 

 which summer in Northern Europe. To Ireland, which is quite outside the breeding 

 area, the pied-flycatcher is only an occasional migrant. The first spring immigrants 

 reach England about mid- April, and the movement becomes general a week or so 

 later, lasting till about the middle of May : it is in the first week of the latter month 

 that the passage is usually noticed on the east coast and the northern isles. Emigra- 

 tion sets in late in August and continues through September : a pied-flycatcher has 



