114 MUSCICAPID^E. 



arrival at Selborne more than once to be so late as the 20th of 

 May. It remains in the north of Ireland until autumn is very 

 far advanced. 



In addition to the ordinary places selected for nidiflcation 

 here, as trees, holes in walls, &c, I have seen a nest at the Falls, 

 resting in part upon an aperture in a wall, and partly on the 

 branch of a fig-tree trained against it. Garden walls, indeed, seem 

 to be favourite sites for the nest. This is generally of careless 

 construction, and formed of various materials, occasionally of 

 moss, to winch is sometimes added hair, cobwebs, and feathers; 

 the last not being always used, even as lining. An observant 

 friend states that a nest placed against the unglazed window of 

 an outhouse at Beechmount, was so composed of cobwebs inside 

 and outside, that no other material was visible. Prom its choice 

 of this fragile building substance, the spotted flycatcher is called 

 cobweb bird in some parts of England. On the nest alluded to 

 being approached when it contained young, the parent bird was 

 very bold, flying angrily at the intruder, uttering shrill cries, and 

 approaching him so near that it might almost have been struck 

 with his hand."* 



A pair of these birds is said to have built their nest on the 

 angle of a lamp-post in one of the streets of Leeds, and brought 

 up their young there ; f in the ornamental crown surmounting a 

 lamp near Portland Place, London, a nest was also constructed, in 

 which five eggs were laid and incubated. J That a pair might 

 have had similar intentions in Belfast, was supposed on the 8th of 

 June, 1842, when one was seen from our parlour in Donegal 

 Square to alight on a lamp-post a few yards distant from the 

 window, where it was soon joined by another, and both continued 

 there for some time, making occasional sorties after flies, but 

 still returning to the lamp-post. This site was not, however, 



* In Macgillivray's Brit. Birds, vol. iii. p. 522, most interesting memoranda on 



the number of times during one whole day that a pah - of these birds fed their young 



are given from the observation of Mr. Durham Weir ; who adds, that " they beat 



off most vigorously all kinds of small birds that approach their nest." 



f Atkinson's Compendium. 



\ Jesse's Gleanings, second series, and Yarrell's Brit. Birds. 



