THE SPOTTED-FLYCATCHER *;. 



flies. Maybe it nppraii to me personally, from the fact that it It the 

 first bird I ever photographed. 



In Kent the spotted-flycatcher is called the "post-bird," from its 

 love of perching on posts of all kinda In the woodlands it may be 

 frequently overlooked, for there Mi nest will be better concealed, and 

 the bird's little grey-brown form does not at any time court attention. 

 How confiding it is may be judged from the fact that it is one of the 

 few migratory species whose nests may be found in our London parka 

 and gardens. Gould mentions a nest with five partially incubated 

 eggs which was taken from a lamp-post in Portland Place. 1 



A striking example of the persistence of the spotted-flycatcher in 

 returning to its nesting-place is related by Mr. Gurney, as follows: 

 "About the end of June a spotted-flycatcher began to build a nest 

 over the door of the lodge at the entrance of my grounds. The woman 

 who lives in the lodge, not wishing the bird to build there, destroyed 

 the commencement of the nest ; every day for a week the bird placed 

 new materials on the same ledge over the door, and every day the 

 woman removed them, and at the end of a week placed a stone on the 

 ledge, which effectually baffled the flycatcher's efforts at that spot ; but 

 the bird then began building at the latter end of the ledge, from whence 

 it was also driven, and three stones being then placed on the ledge, the 

 bird relinquished the attempt to build at either end of it, and com- 

 menced building a nest on a beech-tree opposite, which it completed, 

 and laid two eggs in it When the bird was thus apparently estab- 

 lished in the beech-tree, the stones over the door were taken away, 

 when the flycatcher immediately forsook its nest and eggs in the 

 beech, and again commenced building over the door on the part of 

 the projecting ledge which it had first chosen. The nest was again 

 destroyed and two slates placed over the spot : the birds contrived to 

 throw down one of the slates from a slanting to a horizontal position, 

 and then began to build upon it The nest was again destroyed, and 

 the three stones replaced and kept there for a fortnight, after which 



1 Kird* of Great Britain . 



