THE PIED FLYCATCHER 25 







there I first heard the song of this bird. It is very seldom now that I hear a 

 song that is quite new to me. If it were not that so man}- of our songsters sing 

 all too short a time, and that when they tune up one by one for the orchestra of 

 the spring season each instrument touches the ear with the fresh delight of recog- 

 nition, I might feel as much at the end of my tether as the mountaineer who has 

 no more peaks to climb. But this song was not only new, but wonderfully sweet 

 and striking. ' Something like a Redstart's ' say the books, and this is not untrue, 

 so far as it represents the outward form, so to speak, of the song the quickness 

 or shortness of notes, the rapid variations of pitch. But no one who has once 

 accustomed his ear to the very peculiar timbre of the voice of either kind of Red- 

 start will mistake for it the song of the Pied Flycatcher. My notes, taken on the 

 spot, and before I had seen any other description of it, recall the song to my 

 memory the short notes at the beginning, the rather fragmentary and hesitating 

 character of the strain, and the little coda or finish, which reminded me of the 

 Chaffinch, but all this will have no meaning to my readers. There is but one 

 way of learning a bird's song, and that is by listening to it in solitude again and 

 again, until you have associated it in your mind, with the form, and habits, and 

 haunts of the singer." 



Gstke states that the Pied Flycatcher "visits Heligoland in larger numbers 

 than any of its near relatives. It is especially abundant during the autumn 

 migration, returning from its nesting quarters as early as the beginning of August, 

 if the weather is fine and warm, and the wind from the south or south-east." 

 Why this bird should migrate before scarcity of food or cold compel it to do so, 

 it is difficult to understand ; probably the tendency has been inherited, and points 

 back to some remote period when the summers of Europe were of short duration. 



The food of this species consists largely of insects, but it rarely, if ever, 

 pursues them in the air like the Spotted Flycatcher, preferring to watch from the 

 end of a branch, and pounce suddenly down upon them ; it is not therefore sur- 

 prising that among the pellets of undigested matter ejected by this, as by other 

 insectivorous birds, wing-cases of small beetles predominate ; it is, however, said 

 to pick flies and gnats from leaves upon which they have settled, and to eat worms. 

 Later in the year, as currants, raspberries, elderberries, etc., become ripe, the Pied 

 Flycatcher is said to add them to its dietary. 



Far more beautiful than its Spotted relative, and with a much better idea of 

 music, it is no wonder that, where opportunity offers, this species is prized as a 

 cage-bird ; yet I have never seen one exhibited in England ; though in Germany 

 the Pied Flycatcher has put in an appearance at the exhibitions of the " Ornis " 

 Society. Being so much more local in Great Britain than the Spotted Flycatcher, 



