MU SCI CAP A 255 



Frequents groves and woods, especially where there are old 

 trees, and is much more a forest-haunting bird than M. grisola, 

 being but seldom found near human habitations. It feeds on 

 insects, which it captures chiefly on the wing, and is said also to 

 eat berries in the autumn. Its call-note is a soft witt, witt, and 

 its song, which is short, somewhat melancholy in tone, and 

 slightly resembles that of Ruticilla phcenicurus. It breeds in 

 May and June, selecting a convenient hole in a tree, usually an 

 old oak or beech, in which to place its nest, which is loosely 

 constructed of rootlets, moss, and grass-bents, lined with wool, 

 hair, or feathers. The eggs, from 4 to 6, rarely 7, in number, are 

 delicate pale blue-greenish white, occasionally speckled with 

 pale reddish brown, and measure about O67 by O52. 



379. WHITE-COLLARED FLYCATCHER. 

 MUSCICAPA COLLARIS. 



Muscicapa collaris, Bechst. Gemeinn. Naturg. Deutschl. iv. p. 495 

 (1795) ; Gould, B. of Gt. Brit. 11, pi. 18 ; Dresser, iii. p. 459, 

 pi. 158, fig. 1 ; Sharpe, Cat. B. Br. Mus. iv.-p. 160 ; Saunders,p. 160 ; 

 M. albicollis, Temm. Man. d'Orn. p. 100 (1815) ; Naum. ii. p. 224, 

 Taf. 65, figs. 1, 2, and 352, fig. 1. 



Gobe-mouche a collier, French ; Balia, Ital. ; Weisshalsiger 

 Fliegenf anger, German ; HvidJialset Fluesnapper, Dan. ; Hals- 

 hinds Flugsnappare, Swed. ; Mycholovka-Dieloscheyka, Russ. 



ad. (Malta). Differs from M. atricapilla in having a white collar 

 extending right round the neck ; frontal patch and speculum larger ; lower 

 back greyish white and less white on the outer tail-feathers. Culmeii 0'45, 

 wing 3'15, tail 2'05, tarsus 0'65 inch. The female closely resembles that 

 of J/. atricapilla^ but has, as a rule, the alar speculum rather larger, and 

 the tarsus slightly shorter. 



Hctb. Central and Southern Europe, east to Asia Minor, 

 straying rarely as far north as Denmark ; wintering in N. Africa ; 

 of very doubtful occurrence in Great Britain. 



In its general habits it does not differ from M. atricapilla, and 

 like that bird places its nest in the hole of an old tree, and in 

 May or early in June deposits 4 to 7 eggs, which resemble those 

 of M. atricapilla, but are invariably unspotted, and somewhat 

 paler in colour, and in size are about the same as those of 

 M. atricapilla. 



