2G6 THE FLYCATCHERS 



THE SPOTTED-FLYCATCHER 

 [E. L. TURNER] 



The spotted-flycatcher is amongst the last of our summer migrants 

 to arrive, but one of the commonest and most evenly distributed 

 throughout Great Britain. Owing to its unobtrusive and confiding 

 habits, sober garments, and lack of musical talent, it is well estab- 

 lished in our woods, orchards, and gardens almost before we are aware 

 of its presence. Many writers speak of it as the " mute " bird, and 

 indeed the few notes it utters scarcely attain the dignity of a song, 

 and are heard only at rare intervals ; but although nature has with- 

 held from this bird much that is superficially attractive, she has, by 

 way of compensation, endowed it with poetry of motion. One moment 

 it may be seen perched on a post, inert, silent, and pensive, its whole 

 attitude suggestive of languorous indifference to the affairs of life ; but 

 an instant later it will dart with lightning-like rapidity on its prey, 

 gyrating in mid-air for a second before returning to its perch with the 

 captured insect, where it immediately resumes its former apparently 

 listless attitude. There is, however, a suggestion of latent energy 

 about the flycatcher's seeming inertia ; the keen watchful eye, slender, 

 rapier-like bill, and slightly drooped tail, suggest the momentary 

 pause of a skilled fencer before he makes his fatal thrust. Any one 

 who is not deaf may hear the snap of the flycatcher's beak as it 

 closes upon an insect, the escape of which is rendered almost impos- 

 sible by the strong hairs surrounding the bird's gape. These hairs 

 are common to many insectivorous birds, and are said " to act like the 

 backward bent teeth of pike in preventing the escape of the prey." ' 



As the spotted-flycatcher is a late arrival, very little time seems 

 to be spent in preliminaries, and of its courtship nothing seems to be 



1 Warde Fowler, A Year ivith the Birds, p. 134. 



