268 THE FLYCATCHERS 



alike ; but the general opinion seems to be that the female alone 

 undertakes this work, as well as the incubating ; both birds, however, 

 share in feeding the young. A pair I once photographed, which 

 nested in the fork of an apple-tree, were easily distinguishable, because 

 the one I took to be the female from her feminine behaviour had 

 lost a tuft of feathers from her neck ; she was also generally 

 dishevelled in appearance, as from long brooding, whereas her mate 

 was neat and trim. Both were equally diligent in feeding their newly 

 fledged offspring. 



The young hatched out in the thrushes' nest were brooded over 

 entirely by the mother for three or four days, and all the food was 

 brought by the male. On his approach the hen put on a most senti- 

 mental expression, turned her head from side to side in a languishing 

 manner, shivered her wings rapidly all the time, and uttered a very 

 faint sound, or, as Gilbert White describes it, " a little inward wailing 

 note." * She would then raise herself in the nest, and gently stir up 

 the young to that attitude of expectancy all other nestlings I have ever 

 observed assume by instinct on the slightest sounds indicating the 

 presence of their parents ; then she took the food from her mate, and 

 administered it to the young herself; after which they immediately 

 settled down to their former state of apathy. The whole process was 

 curiously silent, and remained so even later on, when the young ones 

 were well grown. But then adult flycatchers are singularly self- 

 contained, and behave in the most dignified fashion under circum- 

 stances which call forth torrents of invective from such birds as tits 

 and starlings, or indeed from any of the smaller birds into whose 

 domain I have intruded. Somehow this meekness wins in the end, 

 for the spotted-flycatcher manages to hold its own without ostenta- 

 tion or fuss of any kind. It is, moreover, one of the best friends of 

 the agriculturalist. Its fearlessness and friendliness are always attrac- 

 tive, and few birds are so suggestive of summer sunshine as the sober- 

 coloured, graceful flycatcher perched on a tennis-net, hawking for 



1 Letter to Pennant, Sept. 2, 1774. 



