115 



THE SPOTTED FLYCATCHER. 



Muscicapa grisola L. 



The Spotted Flycatcher began to appear in the south-west 

 o£ England during the latter part of the first week of May. 

 It was observed in small numbers and in scattered localities, 

 and appears to have spread in a northerly direction through 

 Mid- Wales and in a north-easterly direction into the Thames 

 Valley, and so into Herts and Cambridge. Stragglers con- 

 tinued to airrive in this manner for about a fortnight. 



The first important immigration occurred from May the 

 12th to the 17th. Probably the largest number of birds 

 arrived along the whole of the south coast on the 12th, while 

 smaller numbers arrived in Sussex on the 15th, in Hampshire 

 on the 16th, and in the extreme west on the 17th. The actual 

 arrival of these birds in the southern counties seems for the 

 most part to have been overlooked, and it may be that they 

 passed rapidly on, without tarrying on the coast, into 

 Essex, Surrey, Berks, Wilts, and Somerset, from whence 

 the actual records came. 



The arrival on the 16th was noted at the Hants lights, 

 when the present species seems to have formed one of the 

 minor contingents of one of the heaviest immigratory 

 " rushes " of the season. 



The course of these birds could be traced in a northerly 

 direction through the country as far as Yorkshire and 

 Lancashire, though, with the exception of the southern 

 counties, the numbers were nowhere very large. By May 

 the 21st and 22nd the species was reported to be fairly 

 established in Norfolk and Shropshire, and was said to be 

 nesting in Hampshire and in Derby. 



Ob May the 22nd a second immigration occurred on the 

 Sussex and Hampshire coasts ; but the whole movement was 

 on a smaller scale than the previous one. 



