IN GARDEN, PARK, AND SHRUBBERY. 37 



railings round haystacks. In the garden he may 

 be seen amongst the fruit-trees, or about the 

 greenhouses, using them as his watch-tower from 

 which he sallies in quest of food. When once 

 back in his accustomed haunts, he wanders little 

 all the summer through ; but sometimes you may 

 meet with him on the dung-heaps, or even on 

 the open grass lands near the shrubberies. His 

 food is insects, mostly caught in the air, but 

 beetles are often sought on the ground. He has 

 a short and simple little song, which is only 

 uttered at rare and uncertain intervals ; he seems 

 always too intent on his fly-catching to waste 

 much time in song. The Spotted Flycatcher 

 builds a charming little nest in June, placing it on 

 some flat branch of a wall-trained fruit-tree, or 

 among the trellis-work above the garden portico, 

 where the climbing roses flourish, In the park it 

 chooses a crevice in the bark, especially among 

 the wych elm trees. Coarse, dry grass and moss, 

 and sometimes an assortment of worsted, twine, 

 and cotton, intermingled with the hard wing- 

 cases of insects, form the outer structure, which is 

 .snugly lined with fine roots and horsehair. In 

 this the female lays five or six eggs, pale bluish 

 green in ground colour, mottled and spotted with 

 reddish brown. The young birds prettily spotted 

 little creatures keep in company with their 

 parents, who feed and tend them almost all the 

 remainder of the summer. It should here be 

 remarked that the Spotted Flycatcher is one of 

 the very latest of our migrants, not arriving before 

 the middle of May, and like most of these late 

 birds, it leaves early, departing for a southern 

 haunt by the beginning of September. 



