328 BRITISH BIRDS. 



MUSCICAPA ATRICAPILLA. 

 PIED FLYCATCHER. 



(PLATE 9.) 



Muscicapa nigra, Briss. Orn. ii. p. 381 (1760, J 1 ). 



Ficedula ficedula, Briss. Orn. iii. p. 369 (1760, ). 



Ficedula rubetra anglicana, Briss. Orn. iii. p. 436 (1760, ex Edwards'). 



Muscicapa atricapilla, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 326 (1766) ; et auctorum plurimorum 



Yarrell, Gray, Blyth, Bonaparte, Cabanis, Schlegel, Sundevall, Loche, Gould, 



Heuylin, Sharpe, Newton, Dresser, Blanford, &c. 

 Emberiza luctuosa, Scop. Ann. I. Hist. Nat. p. 146. no. 215 (1769). 

 Muscicapa muscipeta, Bechst. Naturg. Deutschl. iv. p. 502 (1795). 

 Muscicapa luctuosa (Scop.), Temm. Man. a" Orn. p. 101 (1815). 

 Muscicapa alticeps, j 



Muscicapa fuscicapilla, | Brehm, Vog. Deutschl. pp. 225, 226, 227 (1831). 

 Muscicapa atrogrisea, 1 



Muscicapa picata, Swains. Jard. Nat. Libr. x. p. 254 (1838). 



Hedymela atricapilla (Linn.), Sundev. (Efv. K. Vet.-Akad. Fork. Stockh. 1846, p. 225. 

 Muscicapa speculigera, Selys,Jide Bonap. Consp. i. p. 317 (1850). 

 Muscicapa speculifera, Selys,Jide Schl. Vog. Nederl. p. 225 (1854). 

 Ficedula atricapilla (Linn), Sund. Av. Meth. Tent. p. 23 (1872). 



The Pied Flycatcher is not nearly so common or so widely dispersed in 

 Great Britain as the Spotted Flycatcher. Its distribution is compara- 

 tively restricted and confined, for the most part, to one or two favoured 

 localities in the north of England and the south of Scotland. Although it 

 breeds in some districts in North Wales and the English counties on the 

 Welsh border, its chief summer haunt appears to be from South-west 

 Yorkshire, extending northwards to the Lake-districts of England and the 

 eastern and midland counties of Scotland, from Berwickshire to Caithness. 

 It is also known to breed in Inverness-shire; and Messrs. Baikie and 

 Heddle assert that it is often observed in the Orkneys ; but it does not 

 appear to have been recorded from Shetland. Returning to the midland 

 counties of England, we find it a rare straggler ; but it has been noticed in 

 the counties of Leicester, Derby, Stafford, Worcester, and Hereford. It 

 has also been obtained in all our eastern and southern counties from Norfolk 

 to Cornwall and the Isle of Wight, and occasionally in North Devon, 

 Somerset, Gloucester, Oxford, Wilts, and Dorset. It has never been 

 recorded from Ireland, nor does it ever appear to reach Iceland or 

 Greenland ; but a small flock was once seen on the Faroes. 



On the Continent the distribution of the Pied Flycatcher is somewhat 

 peculiar. It is common in Scandinavia during summer, having been 

 found breeding up to lat. 69 ; but in Russia it is not found so far north in 

 Finland ranging to lat. 65, and in the Ural Mountains (which appear to 



