186 MUSCICAPID^. 



mer visitor to the North of Ireland. Dr. Fleming says it 

 is rare in Scotland. Mr. Selby observed it in Sutherland- 

 shire, in June, 1834; and it is also found in Denmark, 

 Norway, and Sweden. It is a common bird on the Eu- 

 ropean continent. It is found at Corfu, Sicily, Malta, 

 Crete, and eastward as far as Erzeroum, and its range ex- 

 tends to Western and Southern Africa, even as far as the 

 Cape. 



The beak is dark brown ; the irides hazel ; the head 

 and the whole of the upper surface of the body and 

 wing-coverts hair brown, the quills and tail-feathers being 

 a little darker, with a few dark brown spots on the top 

 of the head ; the tertials with a narrow margin of light 

 brown ; the under parts dull white, with a patch of light 

 brown across the upper part of the breast, and a few dark 

 brown streaks or spots upon that and the chin, with a 

 clear white space between ; the sides and flanks tinged 

 with yellowish brown ; legs, toes, and claws, black. 



Males and females are alike in plumage. 



The whole length of the bird is five inches and five- 

 eighths. From the carpal joint to the end of the longest 

 quill-feather, three inches and three-eighths : the first fea- 

 ther of the wing very short, only about one third of the 

 length of the second ; the second very little shorter than 

 the fourth ; the third feather the longest of the whole. 



The young, when ready to leave the nest, are truly 

 Spotted Flycatchers, each brown feather having a buff- 

 coloured tip, the ends of the great wing-coverts forming 

 a pale wood-brown bar across the wing ; under surface 

 white. After their first moult, they may be distinguished 

 from older birds by the broader buff-coloured outer mar- 

 gins of the tertials. 



