SPOTTED FLYCATCHER. 185 



quitted its eggs whenever the thermometer in the house 

 was above 72, and resumed her place upon the nest again 

 when the thermometer sunk below. According to Mr. 

 Jenyns, the young Flycatchers are hatched about the se- 

 cond week in June : when able to leave the nest, they fol- 

 low the parent birds, who feed them, and teach them, by 

 their example, to catch insects for themselves. When on 

 the look-out for food, they generally take their stand on 

 the top of a post, on the upper bar of a flight of rails, or 

 the extreme end of a branch of a tree, from whence they 

 dart off on the approach of an insect, appear to catch it 

 with ease by a short and rapid movement, returning fre- 

 quently to the spot they had quitted, to keep watch as be- 

 fore. These birds are believed to feed almost exclusively 

 on winged insects. They frequent orchards, and have been 

 accused of eating cherries and raspberries ; in this belief 

 this bird in some parts of Kent goes by the name of the 

 Cherry-sucker, but they seem rather to be induced to visit 

 fruit-trees for the sake of the flies which the ripe fruits at- 

 tract, since on examination of the stomachs of Flycatchers 

 killed under such circumstances no remains of fruit were 

 found. 



White, in his History of Selborne, says that the Spotted 

 Flycatcher only rears one brood in this country ; but I 

 have known some instances of this bird's producing a se- 

 cond hatch, and have been told of several others ; and as 

 it does not leave England till near the end of September, 

 there is ample time to bring up a second brood. 



A second brood in three successive seasons is recorded 

 by Mr. Knox in his systematic catalogue of the birds of 

 Sussex. 



The Spotted Flycatcher is common during summer in 

 most of, if not all, the counties of England ; and Mr. 

 Thompson of Belfast informs me, it is also a regular sum- 



