SPOTTED FLYCATCHER. 175 



in his stove several successive years. He observed that 

 the bird quitted its eggs whenever the thermometer in 

 the house was above 72, and resumed her place upon 

 the nest again when the thermometer sunk below. 

 According to Mr. Jenyns, the young Flycatchers are 

 hatched about the second week in June : when able to 

 leave the nest, they follow the parent birds, who feed 

 them, and learn them, by their example, to catch insects 

 for themselves. When on the look-out for food, they 

 generally take their stand on the top of a post, on the 

 upper bar of a flight of rails, or the extreme end of a 

 branch of a tree, from whence they dart off on the ap- 

 proach of an insect, appear to catch it with ease by a 

 short and rapid movement, returning frequently to the 

 spot they had quitted, to keep watch as before. These 

 birds are believed to feed almost exclusively on winged 

 insects. They frequent orchards, and have been accused 

 of eating cherries and raspberries ; in this belief this bird 

 in some parts of Kent goes by the name of the Cherry- 

 sucker, but they seem rather to be induced to visit fruit- 

 trees for the sake of the flies which the ripe fruits attract, 

 since on examination of the stomachs of Flycatchers killed 

 under such circumstances no remains of fruit were found. 



White, in his History of Selborne, says that the Spotted 

 Flycatcher only rears one brood in this country ; but I 

 have known some instances of this bird's producing a 

 second hatch, and have been told of several others ; and 

 as it does not leave England till near the end of Sep- 

 tember, there is ample time to bring up a second brood. 



The Spotted Flycatcher is common during summer in 

 most of, if not all, the counties of England ; and Mr, 

 Thompson of Belfast informs me, it is also a regular sum- 

 mer visitor to the North of Ireland. Dr. Fleming says it 



