PIED FLYCATCHER. 231 



few places in North Wales, and the English counties of the 

 Welsh border, and is recorded as having occasionally done so 

 in North Devon, Somerset, Gloucester, Oxford, Wilts, Dorset, 

 the Isle of Wight, Surrey and Norfolk. 



From thence northward it has been noticed, according to 

 Mr. Kobert Gray, along the eastern side of Scotland, from 

 Berwickshire to Caithness, while Mr. E. S. Hargitt has 

 obtained its eggs from Invernessshire, and Messrs. Baikie 

 and Heddle say that it is often seen in the Orkneys. It has 

 not been observed in Ireland. Herr H. Co Muller states that 

 it has once occurred in the Faeroes, and it is a common 

 summer-visitant throughout Norway and Sweden, breeding 

 so far as lat. 68 N., while it occasionally appears even on 

 the shores of the Arctic Ocean, and it is found in the interior 

 of Finland. Its eastern limits cannot be traced, but it 

 seems to be rare in most parts of Russia, though common, 

 according to Yon Nordmann, in the southern governments. 

 De Filippi includes it among the birds of Western Persia. 

 It is a very scarce summer-visitant to Palestine, though 

 remaining there to breed. Dr. von Heuglin observed it in 

 Egypt, but only on its northward passage. Mr. Sharpe has 

 received it from the Gambia. MM. Webb and Berthelot 

 found it in Teneriffe. Mr. Drake saw it in Morocco, and 

 several naturalists have observed it in Algeria. Returning 

 to Europe, it is common in spring in Portugal and Spain 

 and breeds, according to Mr. H. Saunders, in Andalucia. 

 Thence it is pretty generally distributed through the rest of 

 the continent and occurs on the islands of the Mediterranean. 



A male killed in the spring, immediately on the arrival of 

 the species in this country, has the beak black ; the irides 

 dark brown ; the forehead white ; head, neck, back, and greater 

 wing- coverts, a mixture of dusky and pure black; rump 

 and upper tail- coverts smoke-grey ; primaries dusky black ; 

 smaller wing-coverts smoke-grey ; greater wing-coverts and 

 tertials broadly edged with white ; tail of twelve feathers, 

 the outer and part of the inner web next the shaft of the 

 outer and second pairs white, the third pair white on a small 

 portion of the outer web only, all the rest of these and the 



