322 BRITISH BIRDS. 



Genus MUSCICAPA. 



The genus Muscicapa was established by Linnaeus in 1766, in his 

 ' Systema Naturae/ i. p. 324. As Linnaeus adopted this name from Brisson 

 (Orn. ii. p. 357), and as the Muscicapa muscicapa of Brisson is the Spotted 

 Flycatcher, that bird may fairly be considered the type. The Flycatchers 

 may be distinguished by the shape of the bill, which is very broad at the 

 base, slightly flattened, and by their numerous and conspicuous rictal 

 bristles. The tarsus also is short, in the British species less than a quarter 

 the length of the wing. 



Sharpe, in his ' Catalogue of the Birds in the British Museum ' (iv. 

 p. 149), includes twenty species in this genus. The Flycatchers inhabit 

 the Palsearctic, Oriental, and ^Ethiopian Regions, extending southwards 

 to the Moluccas, but not occurring in the Australian Region. Four species 

 are found in Europe, of which two breed in the British Islands and one is 

 an accidental visitor. 



The Flycatchers are essentially arboreal birds, and frequent the out- 

 skirts of woods, groves, and gardens. They seldom alight on the ground, 

 but sit perched on the branches, from which they sally into the air to 

 catch their prey, which is almost exclusively composed of insects. They 

 will also occasionally eat fruit. They are birds possessing small powers of 

 song. Their nests, which are loosely constructed of dry grasses, moss, 

 wool, feathers, &c., are built in holes of trees and walls and in crevices 

 of bark. Their eggs are from four to six in number, and vary from 

 pale blue completely spotless, to pale bluish green mottled and spotted 

 with reddish brown. 



