62 MUSCICAPIDJE. 



exceed those which Gesner has remarked to " occur in such 

 numbers as obscuring the sun." 

 Habitat Eastern Europe. 



FAMILY XII MUSCICAPID.E (FLYCATCHERS). 



GENUS XXIX. MUSCICAPA (FLYCATCHER). 



SPECIES 61 THE SPOTTED FLYCATCHER. 



Muscicapa grisola. Linn. 

 Gobe-mouche gris. Temm. 



THE SPOTTED FLYCATCHER is a species which demands con- 

 siderable attention from the ornithologist, not only from the 

 singularity of its habits, but also from being the sole represen- 

 tative of its family with us. 



Living chiefly upon insect prey, the form of the flycatcher 

 is eminently adapted to its pursuit, and usually attracts our 

 attention by its sallies into the air after whatever luckless in- 

 sect may pass. Perching motionless on its favourite stand, 

 the top of a gate-post, or thorn in the hedgerow, it patiently 

 awaits their appearance. A pair of the beautiful orange tip 

 (Pontia cardamines) approach, flitting from side to side of 

 the hedgerow in their playful pastime, at one moment close 

 together, at the next widely separated, they look even more 

 to advantage than that gaudy red admiral ( Vanessa atalanta) 

 which has just swept past : gradually they are nearing the 

 spoiler, who hurriedly springs into the air, and tells us his 

 success in the loud clicking snap of the mandibles. Returning 

 to his perch, he again watches the circles of the now solitary 

 orange tip in search of her lost mate. 



The spotted flycatcher, to our own observation, in the 

 eastern counties appears rather unusual in its occurrence, 

 and is very seldom remarked in any of the counties about 

 Dublin. In the neighbourhood of Cork and Kilkenny I have 

 observed it to occur in more abundance. Having on several 

 occasions received the nest and eggs from Dr. Barker's pro- 

 perty at Stirling, near Dublin, I was informed by the gar- 

 dener, Mr. C. Coghlan (who is perfectly conversant with all 

 our native birds, and in whose collection this bird holds an 

 honoured place), that the flycatcher occasionally appears, 

 and selects any crevice in the wall as a site for the nest. 



