450 
4 
To the eastward the present species appears to occur at least as far as Kultuk. Mr. Blanford 
informs me that it is “a common bird throughout the Persian highlands, extremely abundant in 
places, and generally found wherever there is much vegetation ;’ and Dr. Henderson obtained it 
in Ladak. ‘This latter gentleman writes (Lahore to Yarkand, p. 185) as follows:—A single 
specimen was obtained on the 22nd of September, in an absolute desert, some 14,000 feet above 
the sea-level, at the foot of the Suket Pass, Ladak, a few miles south of what may be considered 
the boundary of Yarkand.” Mr. A. O. Hume received a specimen from Jodhpoor, and says, in a 
note appended to the above information recorded by Dr. Henderson, that he has since “ received 
several other specimens from the Sambhur Lake and other parts of Western Rajpootana, proving 
that the European Flycatcher is a regular winter visitant to Western Continental India.” 
Severtzoff says that it breeds and is found during passage throughout Turkestan; and, according 
to Dr. Dybowski (J. f. O. 1872, p. 446), it is found as far east as Kultuk, in Dauria, where it occurs 
during passage in spring late in May, and again in the autumn, and breeds in the lowlands of 
Irkutsk. To this note Mr. L. Taczanowski adds that the single example sent by Dr. Dybowski 
from Darasun is rather paler than the usual type of the present species. 
Exceedingly tame and familiar, and frequenting by choice the vicinity of human habitations, 
the Spotted Flycatcher is one of our best-known British birds. In a garden where the birds are 
unmolested the Robin and the Flycatcher are sure to be amongst the first who take advantage 
of the protection afforded to the feathered race; and should the house be covered with creepers, 
one may usually see a Flycatcher’s nest built close to a window or in the porch; and even if 
disturbed the bird will pertinaciously return to the same place if it has once chosen it for the 
purpose of nidification. It is usually seen sitting on a fence, flower-stick, or a scathed bough, 
in fact in any open position, from which it takes short aérial excursions in quest of passing 
insects, and returns to devour its prey on its favourite perch. It frequents groves, the outskirts 
of woods, open spots in plantations and gardens, and not only catches its prey on the wing, but 
searches amongst the foliage of the trees and bushes, or even on the ground, for insects of 
various kinds, which form its food. I have, when in Sweden, seen this bird searching for insects 
on the ground in the fir-woods; and when disturbed they immediately took refuge in the trees ; 
but usually I have found it in the trees, and very seldom on the ground. The flight of this 
Flycatcher is undulating and very swift; but it seems to traverse long distances unwillingly, and 
usually flies from tree to tree. 
Its note is a harsh, rather prolonged, and somewhat melancholy sound, like the syllable 
tshee several times repeated; and the song of the male, if song it can be called (for it is so poor), 
is nothing but the call-note intermingled with low chirping notes. 
Its food consists chiefly of insects of various kinds, flies, gnats, and especially all sorts of 
winged insects; but Collett says that he has known it to feed on berries in the autumn in 
Norway, and has seen specimens caught in snares set for Thrushes and baited with the berries 
of the mountain-ash. 
The nest of this bird is placed in very varied places, but most generally in the creepers that 
twine round the trunk of a tree or against a building, on a beam or in a hole in an old wall or a 
tree, or in a rotten stump; and I have known it placed in between the bark and the stem of a 
tree when the bark was loose. It is said to build sometimes in a bush: Mr. Sachse informs me 
