OPEN NESTS 199 



lowing species may be mentioned — Graucalus macii, 

 Campophaga sykesi, and Pericrocotus cinereus. Con- 

 siderable diversity characterises the architecture of the 

 Fly-catchers (Muscicapidse), an exclusively Old World 

 group where they are most abundantly distributed 

 in the tropics. As we have already seen, some of 

 these birds nest in holes, some others construct 

 domed nests, therefore do not require consideration 

 here. Of the three hundred or more species, how- 

 ever, a considerable number make open nests, a de- 

 scription of a few of which we will now proceed to give* 

 Two of the most familiar of these belong to European 

 species, one of which is a common summer visitor 

 to the British Islands. This is the Spotted Flycatcher 

 {Muscicapa gvisola). The cup-shaped nest of this bird 

 is placed in a great variety of situations, one of the 

 most familiar being in a shallow knot-hole close to a 

 tree trunk. The small and loosely fabricated nest is 

 made of dry grass and moss, cemented or bound 

 together with spiders' webs and garnished with wing 

 cases and sometimes lichen, and lined with roots, 

 hair, and feathers, one of these materials often being 

 exclusively employed. The second species is the Red- 

 breasted Flycatcher (il/. parva), a bird that breeds no 

 nearer to our area than Germany. It builds its 

 beautiful little cup-shaped nest in a very similar 

 situation to that of the preceding species, forming 

 it externally of moss garnished with a few bits of 

 lichen or one or two small feathers, and linina it 



