178 MUSCICAPID.E. 



in certain localities, is a rare bird in England. It should 

 be considered also as a summer visiter to this country, 

 arriving in April, and quitting it to go further south in 

 September. It appears to be most plentiful in the vicinity 

 of the Lakes of Cumberland and Westmoreland ; and in 

 some of its habits, particularly in its mode of feeding, as 

 also in the nature of its food, it resembles the well-known 

 Spotted Flycatcher ; but with these distinctions, that it 

 builds in the holes of decayed oaks or pollard trees, and, 

 as Mr. T. C. Heysham of Carlisle has informed me, is ex- 

 ceedingly noisy and clamorous when its retreat is approach- 

 ed, and that it lays sometimes as many as eight eggs. 



" In the season of 1830, a pair had a nest in the iden- 

 tical hole where this species had bred for four successive 

 years. On the 14th of May this nest contained eight eggs, 

 arranged in the following manner : one lay at the bottom, 

 and the remainder were all regularly placed perpendicularly 

 round the sides of the nest, with the smaller ends resting 

 upon it, the effect of which was exceedingly beautiful."" The 

 eggs from different nests are found to vary greatly in size. 



Its nest is a loose assemblage of roots and grass, with a 

 few dry leaves, dead bents, and hair : the eggs are eight 

 lines and a half long, by six lines and a half in breadth, and 

 of a uniform pale blue colour. The young are hatched about 

 the first or second week in June. Mr. Blackwall says, 

 that the notes of the male are varied and pleasing ; and 

 Mr. Dovaston compares its song to that of the Kedstart. 



Pennant mentions one example of this bird killed near 

 Uxbridge in Middlesex ; and I have a young male of the 

 year killed in September, much nearer to London. It has 

 been noticed in Surrey, Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk, Yorkshire, 

 Northumberland, and Durham. On the southern coast, 

 Mr. Blyth has seen a specimen that was* shot in the Isle 



