188 MUSCICAPIDJS. 



THE PIED FLYCATCHER is much less numerous as a spe- 

 cies than its generic companion last described, and, except 

 in certain localities, is a rare bird in England. It should 

 be considered also as a summer visitor to this country, 

 arriving in April, and quitting it to go further south in 

 September. It appears to be most plentiful in the vici- 

 nity of the Lakes of Cumberland and Westmoreland; 

 and in some of its habits, particularly in its mode of 

 feeding, as also in the nature of its food, it resembles the 

 well -known Spotted Flycatcher ; but with these distinctions, 

 that it builds in the holes of decayed oaks or pollard 

 trees, and, as Mr. T. C. Heysham of Carlisle has in- 

 formed me, is exceedingly noisy and clamorous when its 

 retreat is approached, and that it lays sometimes as many 

 as eight eggs. 



"In the season of 1830, a pair had a nest in the iden- 

 tical hole where this species had bred for four successive 

 years. On the 14th of May this nest contained eight 

 eggs, arranged in the following manner : one lay at the 

 bottom, and the remainder were all regularly placed per- 

 pendicularly round the sides of the nest, with the smaller 

 ends resting upon it, the effect of which was exceedingly 

 beautiful." The eggs from different nests are found to 

 vary greatly in size. 



Its nest is a loose assemblage of roots and grass, with a 

 few dry leaves, dead bents, and hair : the eggs are eight 

 lines and a half long, by six lines and a half in breadth, 

 and of a uniform pale blue colour. The young are hatched 

 about the first or second week in June. Mr. Black- 

 wall says, that the notes of the male are varied and 

 pleasing ; and Mr. Dovaston compares its song to that of 

 the Redstart. 



Pennant mentions one example of this bird killed near 

 Uxbridge in Middlesex ; and I have a young male of the 



