THE SPOTTED FLYCATCHER. 115 



chosen, but in a more natural one, among ivy on an adjacent 

 wall in the square, it was afterwards ascertained that they had a 

 nest. In a town-garden here, a pair of these birds built for a 

 long period annually; too many of the choicest sites always 

 " offering," where bad bricks had crumbled away and left " ample 

 space and verge enough " for the summer mansion of the fly- 

 catcher. The nest was at least partially screened from observation 

 by the foliage of the fruit trees upon the wall ; the eggs were 

 generally four in number. 



The Rev. Geo. Robinson of Tanderagee informs me (1847) that 

 the spotted flycatcher is as numerous in the demesne at Drumba- 

 nagher, as he has ever seen it in the parks or pleasure-grounds of 

 England. He has observed it, but not commonly, at other places 

 in the county of Armagh, and also in Tyrone. Prom the vicinity 

 of Londonderry, specimens were obtained for the Ordnance Survey 

 collection. This species regularly visits the neighbourhood of 

 Dublin. The Eev. Thomas Knox remarks, that it breeds about 

 Killaloe, county of Clare, and has occasionally either two broods, 

 or builds a second time if the first nest be destroyed, as on the 

 1st of August, 1833, he saw one sitting on young birds, though 

 on the 8th of June in the previous year, he knew a brood to have 

 been hatched.* It is not uncommon, and breeds about Clonmel.t 

 In the Fauna of Cork it is said to be a regular summer visitant 

 to that county. 



The Pied Flycatcher {Muscicapa atricapilla or M. luctuosa), a 

 summer visitant to some parts of England, has not been met with in 

 Ireland or Scotland. When on the 26th of April, 1841, in H.M.S. 

 Beacon nearly ninety miles from Zante, the nearest land, and 130 from 

 Navarino, a male white-collared flycatcher {Muscicapa albicollis) was 

 caught on board, and on the following day, when about half that dis- 

 tance from these places respectively, two or three more male birds flew 

 on board, as did also the same number of females, either of M. albicollis 

 or M. atricapilla, but more probably of the former species. 



* On this subject see note to White's Selbome, p. 179, ed. 1837, and Journal of 

 a Naturalist, p. 207. 



t Mr. Davis. 



i 2 



