THE SPOTTED FLYCATCHER. 2l 



of a hedge it is circular, if on a fruit-branch trained against a wall, semicircular, 

 and the nest which I obtained from a hole in a wall was of the exact shape of a small 

 slipper ; the materials of the nest also vary somewhat, but they generally consist 

 of twigs and roots, or fine grasses, mixed with a quantity of green moss interwoven 

 with spiders' webs, and lined with fine grass, hair, and sometimes two or three 

 feathers. The eggs vary in number from three to six, five being the most usual 

 number, the ground colour being frequently pale pea-green, but sometimes bluish- 

 white, blotched, zoned, mottled or spotted with various depths of ferruginous red- 

 brown ; when the mottling is very dense the egg, excepting in its inferior size 

 and narrower shape, somewhat reminds one of that of the Robin, and when the 

 markings are chiefly represented by a zone near the larger end, it vaguely suggests 

 that of the Greenfinch. 



The Spotted Flycatcher rarely reaches us before May ; but, nevertheless is in 

 no hurry to go to nest ; the earliest date at which I have taken its eggs was on 

 the 3Oth of that month, and they are rarely obtained before June. 



As proof that birds are sometimes unable to recognize their own eggs, the 

 following fact (already recorded in my Handbook of British Oology) is of interest : 

 On the 4th June, 1878, I removed three eggs from a rather small nest of the 

 Spotted Flycatcher formed in the hollow top of a tree stump in a small plantation 

 of hazels. I substituted three hazel-nuts for the eggs, and these completely filled 

 the cavity of the nest. On the 8th of June I returned and found the hen sitting ; 

 she had ejected one of the hazel-nuts to make room for a fourth egg. 



Respecting the notes of this species, Seebohm says : " It is very widely and 

 popularly believed that the Spotted Flycatcher is not gifted with any powers of 

 song ; but this is an error. His song is heard but rarely, it is true, and is uttered 

 in such a low tone as to be scarcely heard a few T yards away. It is given forth 

 both when the bird is sitting at rest and when fluttering in the air after insects. 

 It consists of a few rambling notes, not unlike part of the Whinchat's song. The 

 monotonous call-note may perhaps be best expressed by the letters zt, zt ; it is 

 tittered in rapid succession from one perching-place, and every now and then the 

 tail is jerked to and fro with graceful motion. Sometimes a second syllable is 

 added to the call-note, which then sounds like zt-c/iick." 



I think that Seebohm is incorrect in this last statement: in 1894 I had a 

 family of young Spotted Flycatchers in my garden for over a week, and I fcnind 

 that their call to their parents was zf-chick, and the answer of the parents was zl. 

 I never heard an adult bird use the longer call. 



The food of the Spotted Flycatcher in the summer months consists of insects, 

 spiders, and centipedes, but in the autumn it is said to eat the berries of the 



VOL. ii. E 



