SPOTTED FLYCATCHER. 323 



MUSCICAPA GRISOLA. 

 SPOTTED FLYCATCHER, 



(PLATE 9.) 



Mu-oicapa muscicapa, Brigs. Orn. ii. p. 357, pi. xxxv. fig. 3 (1760). 

 Muscicapa grisola, Linn. Syst. Xat. i. p. 328 (1766) ; et auctorum plurimorum 

 Temnu'nck, Macgillivray, Yarrett, Gray, Gould, Sundecall, Layard, Shelley, 



ton, Sharpe, Dresser, (Hume), &c. 

 Butalis grisola (Linn.), Boie, Isis, 1826, p. 973. 

 Butalis africana, Bonap. Compt. Send, xxxviii. p. 652 (1854). 

 Muscicapa africana (Bonap.'), Gray, Hand-l. It. i. p. 321 (1869). 



The Spotted Flycatcher is one of the latest of our summer migrants. A 

 sombre, unassuming little species it is, and solitary and sedentary in its 

 habits ; yet from its partiality for gardens, and its great familiarity, it is 

 one of the best known of our summer birds of passage. Throughout Great 

 Britain it is a common bird from May until September, breeding in every 

 county, but becoming rather less numerous in Scotland and in the 

 Channel Islands. Northwards the Spotted Flycatcher becomes rarer 

 and far more local in its distribution, and on the islands of Orkney 

 and Shetland it is very rarely seen. Thompson describes it as a regular 

 summer visitant to some parts of Ireland, and perhaps to suitable 

 localities throughout the island; it is, however, but very locally distri- 

 buted, even in those counties in which it is found, as Cork, Kilkenny, 

 Tipperary, Clare, Dublin, and those in the north-east part of Ulster. 

 Throughout the European continent and the islands of the Mediterranean 

 it is a very common bird, and, for the most part, a regular summer 

 migrant. It breeds in tolerable abundance in Scandinavia, as far north 

 as Tromso. In Russia it ranges as far north as Archangel, and is a 

 common species in Central Russia, but does not range far north in the 

 Ural district. Harvie-Brown and I did not meet with it in the Petchora ; 

 but my collectors have sent me skins from Krasnoyarsk. Throughout the 

 rest of Europe it is a common bird, although in some localities it is far 

 more numerous than in others. It has not yet, however, been recorded 

 from Greenland, Iceland, or the Faroes. It breeds in great numbers in 

 Palestine and Turkey in Asia, and was met with by De Filippi and 

 Blanford in Persia, the latter gentleman remarking its exceptional abun- 

 dance in certain localities on the highlands of that country. It is also 

 found in Arrfbia. It is recorded as breeding throughout Turkestan, and 

 has at least occurred as far to the east as Lake Baikal. A few specimens 

 occasionally wander into Western Continental India during the winter 



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