178 MUSCICAPID &. 
in certain localities, is a rare bird in England. It should 
be considered also as a summer visiter to this country, 
arriving in April, and quitting it to go further south in 
September. It appears to be most plentiful in the vicinity 
of the Lakes of Cumberland and Westmoreland; and in 
some of its habits, particularly in its mode of feeding, as 
also in the nature of its food, it resembles the well-known 
Spotted Flycatcher; but with these distinctions,—that it 
builds in the holes of decayed oaks or pollard trees, and, 
as Mr. T. C. Heysham of Carlisle has informed me, is ex- 
ceedingly noisy and clamorous when its retreat is approach- 
ed, and that it lays sometimes as many as eight eggs. 
‘“‘In the season of 1830, a pair had a nest in the iden- 
tical hole where this species had bred for four successive 
years. On the 14th of May this nest contained eight eggs, 
arranged in the following manner: one lay at the bottom, 
and the remainder were all regularly placed perpendicularly 
round the sides of the nest, with the smaller ends resting 
upon it, the effect of which was exceedingly beautiful.” The 
egos from different nests are found to vary greatly in size. 
Its nest is a loose assemblage of roots and grass, with a 
few dry leaves, dead bents, and hair: the eggs are eight 
lines and a halflong, by six lines and a half in breadth, and 
of a uniform pale blue colour. The young are hatched about 
the first or second week in June. Mr. Blackwall says, 
that the notes of the male are varied and pleasing; and 
Mr. Dovaston compares its song to that of the Redstart. 
Pennant mentions one example of this bird killed near 
Uxbridge in Middlesex; and I have a young male of the 
year killed in September, much nearer to London. It has 
been noticed in Surrey, Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk, Yorkshire, 
Northumberland, and Durham. On the southern coast, 
Mr. Blyth has seen a specimen that was shot in the Isle 
