THE SPOTTED-FLYCATCHER -'<;T 



known. The nest is begun almost at once. Yarrell says : "There IB 

 very good reason for believing that the same pair of birds return to 

 occupy the same spot for several years in succession." At any rate, 

 they are very faithful to their old nesting-places, returning to them 

 again and again if unmolested. Gilbert White frequently stated that 

 they cane back every year to the vines on his house. 



In their choice of a site they are almost as fond of variety as the 

 robin. The nest is usually placed in the thicker branches of a creeper 

 against a building, or in the fork of a tree ; but frequently on a ledge of 

 rock or a beam, or amongst the smaller twigs which grow out of a tree 

 trunk. I have aba 1 seen it in the inverted half of a cocoanut and on 

 a window ledge. It has been known to nest in holes in walls and 

 lamp-posts, and frequently appropriates the vacated dwellings of other 

 birds, especially those of the greenfinch and thrush. 3 On August 2, 

 1906, I photographed a pair of flycatchers feeding young in a disused 

 chaffinch's nest, which had simply been spring-cleaned and lined 

 afresh. On July 25, 1910, I photographed another nest inside that of 

 a thrush. In this instance the flycatchers had built a complete nest 

 of their own within the larger structure, so that when brooding the 

 hen bird was almost hidden by the walls of the thrush's nest, which 

 surrounded her own like an earthwork. When alarmed she erected 

 the spotted feathers of her crown, and raised herself in the nest so 

 that her speckled breast came into view. She looked like a pigmy 

 thrush in a home that was much too large for its occupier. 



As far as my own experience goes, when a pair of flycatchers 

 appropriate another bird's nest, they always do so late in the season. 

 It may be that an accident has befallen their original home, so that in 

 order to economise time they simply annex another bird's dwelling. 



It is very difficult to say whether or not both sexes take part in 

 the building of their neatly constructed nest, as they are exactly 



1 Yarrell, vol. i. p. 321. 



1 Mr. Farren tells me that" Every year from 1004 to 1000 inclusive there was a nest in a 

 hole in a small plum-tree, although on only two occasions, 1004 and 1000, was a family success- 

 fully reared." 



VOL. II. '-' M 



