MUSCICAPID^E. 51 



proved a treacherous foundation, for though it did 

 very well for some time, yet when the hird began to 

 sit steadily the weight gradually bent the matting, 

 till at last both nest and eggs slipped off. Yarrell 

 mentions one of these birds having built on the 

 angle of a lamp-post in the streets of Leeds, and 

 another which built on the top of a lamp in Portland' 

 place. 



The Spotted Flycatcher constructs a neat little 

 open nest, apparently of the materials that come 

 easiest to hand, such as moss of various kinds and 

 colours, leaves, bents of grass, roots, &c., lined with 

 horse or cow hair or feathers. 



The food of the Spotted Flycatcher appears to 

 be exclusively insects, and it may be seen all day 

 perched on a twig, or iron railing, or a croquet-hoop 

 is sometimes a very favourite perch, from whence it 

 darts upon every insect that comes within sight. It 

 is accused, though certainly wrongfully, of eating 

 cherries and raspberries, as it frequents those fruit- 

 trees for the sake of the insects that also frequent 

 them ; and though many of these birds have been 

 killed in these trees, and their stomachs examined, 

 no remains of fruit have ever been found. From the 

 accusation of killing bees it is probably less easy to 

 defend them. Gardeners, who are something like 

 gamekeepers in their appreciation of the usefulness 

 of birds, accuse these as well as all the rest of our 

 summer visitors of fruit- eating : my own gardener, 



