yo Wild Life in Wales 



plumage of the male is black and white, that of the female ash- 

 brown, very inconspicuous save for the slight dash of dingy 

 white in the wing. In autumn, before the birds leave their 

 nesting quarters, the distinctive dress of the male has been 

 lost, and the sexes closely resemble one another ; both, as 

 well as their young, being then in the sombre brown 

 plumage of the female, and, contrary to what has been 

 sometimes stated, it is then often impossible to distinguish 

 sex or age from external appearances, though adult males 

 generally show more white on the wing and sometimes 

 retain traces of the white band on the forehead. The first 

 plumage of the young is obscurely mottled, recalling the 

 similar stage of the Spotted Flycatcher ; but it has no sooner 

 been completed than the moult to winter plumage begins, 

 so that specimens in this state are comparatively seldom 

 noticed. The young ornithologist is apt to be misled, in 

 this connection, by meeting with family parties, in autumn, 

 consisting, perhaps, of two broods with their parents, and 

 presenting the apparent anomaly of young in both brown 

 and more or less spotted plumage. I used frequently to 

 encounter roving bands of this sort in the neighbourhood 

 of Llanuwchllyn, and am tempted to dilate upon the subject 

 from a recollection of the time when, long ago, such flocks 

 were often a puzzle to me. 



As has already been stated, the Pied Flycatcher is some- 

 times double brooded, and, as though the second family 

 had not at first entered into his calculations, the male, on 

 some occasions as any rate, has almost completed his change 

 to winter plumage before the second eggs are hatched, thus 

 giving the appearance of a nest being tended by two 

 females ; or, supposing a novice to alight upon such a nest 

 as his first experience, lending some justification to the 

 belief that the plumage of the breeding male is practically 

 identical with that of the female, and that the title of 

 " Pied Flycatcher " is something of a misnomer. But the 

 details of a single case in point may serve as a better 

 illustration than any more general remarks, it being only 

 necessary to state, in introducing it, that, though not an 

 isolated instance in the experience of the writer, such cases 



