FLYCATCHERS 41 



white with a buff tint on the forebreast and flanks, and are 

 conspicuously barred with semicircular black markings. 



Nest. Place : bushes, hedges, tangled growth of brambles, 

 &c. Material : moss with stalks and other material, lined with 

 rootlets, grasses, wool, hair, down. 



Eggs. Usually 5-6. Ground-colour may be white, cream, 

 pink, brownish, or greenish, sometimes bluish, reddish, or bright 

 green. Spotted or blotched usually at the larger end, with 

 brown or reddish and fainter underlying lead tints. Av. size, 

 87 x '64 in. Laying begins in May. One brood. 



(17) Family: Muscicapidce Flycatchers 



78. Spotted-flycatcher [Muscicapa striata striata (Pallas) ; 

 Muscicapa grisola Linnseus]. Summer visitor, scarce in 

 N. Scotland. Bird of passage (E. Clarke). 



Bird. Length 5 in. A small brown spotted bird that 

 perches on the tops of fences, posts, and 

 the like, from which it makes excursions 

 into the air, flitting here and there on 

 quick, graceful pointed wings in pursuit 

 of flies, is almost sure to be the spotted 

 flycatcher. The upper-parts mostly ash- 

 brown with darker brown streaks on the 

 head. Under-parts whitish with dark 

 brown streaks. Gape provided with 

 bristles. The young are conspicuously 

 mottled whitish or buff on the upper- 

 parts. 



Nest. Place : a large variety of situa- 

 tions, such as beams, holes in walls, hay- 

 stacks, &c., where the trunk and some 

 large branch of an old tree meet, rock 

 ledges, deserted nests, creepers, spouts, &c. 

 Material : grass, rootlets, &c., lined with hair, wool, and other 

 soft material. 



Eggs. Usually 4-5. Generally " Bluish-green at first, 

 which often fades to yellowish-white, sometimes closely 

 freckled with reddish-brown and at other times boldly 

 blotched with chestnut and underlying purplish-brown" 

 ( Jourdain). Blue eggs occasional. Av. size, '72 x *54 in. 

 Laying begins in late May or early June. Broods 1-2. 



79. Pied-flycatcher [Muscicapa atricapilla Linnseus. By 

 rule of strict priority should be Muscicapa hypoleuca hypoleuca 

 (Pallas)]. Summer visitor to Great Britain, chiefly to N. Wales 

 and N. England. Rare elsewhere. Bird of passage. 



Fig. 45. 



