162 RED-BREASTED FLY-CATCHER. 
sparingly in North-eastern Germany and in the St. Petersburg 
district ; south of which, in Central Europe, it becomes more plenti- 
ful in summer, though very local. To the south-east of France it is 
an occasional visitor ; and, from the accurate description of a careful 
observer, I have little doubt of its irregular occurrence, during winter, 
in the south-west of Spain. Though only a migrant to Italy, the 
islands of the Mediterranean, Greece, and the Black Sea region, it 
breeds in Southern Russia, the Caucasus and Northern Persia ; while 
eastward, it occurs in Turkestan, and in Siberia as far north as 
Yeneseisk, and eastward to Lake Baikal, where it probably nests. 
In winter it visits India, as far south as Mysore, and in Africa its 
migrations extend to Nubia. 
The Red-breasted Flycatcher arrives in Northern Germany in May 
(generally leaving early in September) ; and it appears to be partial to 
woods of beech and hornbeam, or those where beech and fir are mixed. 
The nest, built early in June, is rather deep and cup-shaped, neatly 
formed of moss and a few lichens, with a lining of dry grass and 
hair. It is usually placed in a hole in the trunk or some rotten 
branch of a beech-tree, but occasionally in a fork against the stem, 
from six to ten feet from the ground. In appearance the eggs, 5-7 
in number, are intermediate between those of the Redbreast and the 
Spotted Flycatcher ; having a very pale greenish ground-colour, with 
mottlings of rusty-brown: measurements °63 by *5 in. The young 
are hatched towards the end of June, and their food, like that of the 
adults, consists of insects, in search of which the birds soon leave 
their breeding-grounds in the forests for gardens and orchards in 
the vicinity. The habits of this species are lively and active, and in 
pugnacity, as in plumage, the male resembles our Redbreast. It has 
a pleasant song, resembling the syllables “vz several times repeated, 
while the alarm-note is a clear pink, pink. 
The adult male in breeding-plumage has the cheeks ash-grey ; 
crown and nape browner grey; upper parts in general wood-brown ; 
tail (of twelve feathers) rather darker brown, with conspicuous white 
bases to the four outer pairs ; chin, throat and upper breast reddish- 
orange ; belly white; sides and flanks pale buff; bill brown; legs 
dark brown. Length 5:1 in. ; wing 2°8 in. The female has no ash- 
grey on the head and her throat is merely reddish-buff. The young 
bird has a spotted nestling-plumage, and later the wing-coverts and 
secondaries become tipped with buff; otherwise it resembles the 
female. The male pairs in the immature plumage of the first year ; 
the orange-red on the throat does not extend to the breast until 
the third moult. 
