506 AVES— FLYCATCHER. 



defence, with a resolution truly astonishing, so that all of them respect him, 

 and on every occasion decline the contest. As the snows of winter approach, 

 he descends from the mountainous forests and from the regions of the north, 

 to the more cultivated parts of the country, hovering about our hedge-rows, 

 orchards, and meadows, and disappears again early in April. 



THE SPOTTED FLYCATCHER. i 



The tribes of flycatchers are so named from living on insects. The spotted 

 flycatcher, however, eats fruit, and is on that account called, in some parts of 

 England, the cherry sucker. It is, in general, of a mouse color, the head 

 spotted with black, and the wings and tail edged with white. Of all the 

 European summer birds it is the most mute and the most familiar ; it also 

 appears the last of any. It builds in a vine or a sweet-brier, against the 

 wall of a house, or in the hole of a wall, or on the end of a beam or plate, 

 and often close to the post of a door where people are going in and out all 

 day long. This bird does not make the least pretensions to song ; but uses 

 a little inward, wailing note, when it thinks its young in danger from cats 

 or other annoyances. It takes its stand on the top of some stake or post, 

 from whence it springs forth on its prey, catching a fly in the air, and hardly 

 ever touching the ground, but returning still to the same stand, for many 

 times together. 



THE PIED FLYCATCHER. 2 



This bird is about five inches long. It has a black beak, hazel eyes, and 

 white forehead; the top of the head, the back, tail, and legs, are black ; the 

 rump is dashed with ash color ; the wing-coverts are dusky, and the greater 

 coverts are tipped with white ; the exterior sides of the secondary quills are 

 white, as are also the outer feathers of the tail, and all the under parts, from 

 the bill to the tail. The female is much smaller than the male, but has a 



^ Muscicapa grisola, Liis . The germs Muscicapa has a bill strong, angular, depressed 

 at the base, compressed towards the point, which is curved and much notched ; base fur- 

 nished with long and stiff hairs ; nostrils basal, lateral, ovoid, partly covered by hairs ; 

 tarsus as long as the middle toe ; lateral toes almost equal. 



^ Muscicapa albicollis, Tem. 



