572 On the correct Name of the Pied Flycatcher. 



Pied Flycatcher. It is also very interesting to read the 

 rest of Willughby's article. The birds then (in the 17th 

 century) and still exported from Cyprus, and in those days 

 called Cyprus-birds, were and are mostly Blackcaps, though 

 not exclusively. Ray's description is merely an extract of 

 Willughby's. Lastly, Albin figures and describes a " small 

 long-bodied bird/' which he calls the u Fig-eater/' and 

 which, among other remarkable characters, has a " yellow 

 breast, spotted with black." This description most cer- 

 tainly does not refer to a Pied Flycatcher. The figure is 

 abominable, and, whatever it may be meant for, is not a 

 Pied Flycatcher, but more probably a sort of Pipit. Albin 

 " had it out of the Collection of Sir Thomas Lowther/' 

 Unfortunately that collection, containing so many birds 

 figured by Albin and named from Albin's work by Linnseus, 

 seems to have disappeared. 



Mr. Oberholser crowns his assertion, that the name 

 ficedula must be adopted for the Pied Flycatcher, with the 

 remark that it is " undoubtedly the same as Motacilla 

 atricapilla, Syst. Nat. ed. x. p. 187, and as it stands first 

 should be adopted." This remark, however, is most careless, 

 because Motacilla atricapilla L. is not a Flycatcher, but 

 undoubtedly the Blackcap, our Sylvia atricapilla ! 



In the 12th edition (i. p. 330) Linnseus adds to his Mota- 

 cilla ficedula quotations which certainly refer to the Pied 

 Flycatcher, notably the very good figure of Frisch, and 

 a description which is apparently taken from Frisch's plate, 

 but the diagnosis is the same as that of 1758. Therefore, 

 some writers might be inclined to regard the article on the 

 Motacilla ficedula of 1766 as a correction and completion of 

 that of 1758 (which, as we have seen, is not referable to 

 the Pied Flycatcher), and might therefore accept the name 

 ficedula. But there is already, before the appearance of 

 the name ficedula, on p. 326 the very clear and undoubted 

 description of the Pied Flycatcher under the name Musci- 

 capa atricapilla. Thus the only course we can take is : — 



1. To discard Motacilla ficedula of 1758 as a doubtful 

 mixture. 



