NEST OF THE SPOTTED FLYCATCHER 



357 



than one occasion been selected for the purpose, and in one instance the nest retained its 

 position although the door was repeatedly opened and closed, until a more, severe shock 

 than ordinary shook the eggs out of the nest and broke them. It is fond of selecting 

 some human habitation for the locality in which it builds its nest, and its titles of Beam 

 Bird and Wall Bird have been given to it because it is in the habit of making its home on 

 beams or the holes of walls. The branches of a pear apricot, vine, or honeysuckle are 

 favourite resorts of the Spotted 

 Flycatcher, when the tree has been 

 trained against a wall. The bird 

 seems to be in the habit of re- 

 turning to the same spot year 

 after year ; and as in one case the 

 same locality was occupied for a 

 series of twenty consecutive years, 

 it is most probable that the young 

 may have succeeded to the domains 

 of their parents. 



The nest is generally round 

 and cup-shaped, and is made of 

 fine grasses, moss, roots, hair, 

 and feathers, the harder materials 

 forming the walls of the nest, 

 and the softer being employed as 

 lining. 



I once watched one of these 

 birds in the act of building her nest, 

 and was greatly interested by the 

 manner in which the business was 

 conducted. First she arranged a 

 rather large bundle of fine dry 

 grass in the thick fork of some 

 branches, and having pecked it 

 about for some little time as if to 

 shake it up regularly, she sat in 

 the middle of it, and by a rapid 

 movement of her wings spun round 

 and round like a top, so as to 

 produce a shallow, cup-like hol- 

 low. She then fetched some more 

 grasses, and after arranging them 

 partly around the edge and partly 

 on the bottom, repeated the spin- 

 ning process. A few hairs and 

 some moss were then stuck about 

 the nest, and woven in very neatly, 

 the hairs and some slender vege- 

 table fibres being the threads, so 

 to speak, with which the moss was 

 fastened to the nest. 



In working out the long hairs and grasses, she generally moved backwards, laying 

 them with her bill, and continually walking round the nest, a circumstance which has 

 also been noted by Mr. Yarrell. I cannot say, however, whether, as is related by that 

 writer, the male brings all the materials, nor can I give any further personal description 

 of the architectural powers of the bird, as when the nest had reached the stage which has 

 been described, I was forced to return home, and on my next visit the nest was finished 

 and the mother bird sitting in it. I was close to the bird during her labours, being 



PIED PLTCA1CHBR. Musotcapa atricapilla. 

 SPOTTED FLYCATCHER. Muscicapa grisola. 



