VOL. VIII.] 



NOTES. 



115 



The parents invariably carry away the excrement after 

 the young are two days old ; up to that time I cannot speak 

 with certainty. Both birds feed and brood, but the amount 

 of brooding is less than with most birds. The parents have 

 often to remove undigested matter from the gapes of the 

 young. This matter is swallowed. From the time when 

 the young are thirteen days old until they leave the nest 

 they can eject such matter themselves and do so over the 

 edge of the nest. The food consists of flies, daddy-long-legs, 

 bluebottles, many kinds of small moths and butterflies up 

 to the size of (and including) the common white butterfly, 



SPOTTED FLYCATCHER— ADULT AXD JUVEXILE. 

 [Photographed by J. H. Owen). 



and wasps. I covxld not see what kind of wasp was taken, 

 but I fancy it was the common wasp, as it was brought 

 to the young fairly frequently. I noticed that the parents 

 were most particular to render all large msects inert before 

 feeding them to the young, and particular!}^ so with wasps. 

 In about a quarter of an hour one morning I saw five wasp- 

 pellets ejected by the young. One of them was submitted 

 to Mr. G. Meade- Waldo of the Natural History Museum, 

 who stated that it was impossible from this fragmentary 

 material to identify the species, which was probably Vespa 

 germanica or V. communis. On the same morning I saw 

 remains of bluebottles ejected. 



All large insects seemed to be put in the gape head first. 

 The 3'oung had to gulp several times to swallow completely 



