THE RED-BREASTED FLYCATCHER. 123 



just as the sun was setting, he came down upon 

 the lower branches and sang his simple song, 

 within twenty feet of us. We might have mis- 

 taken him for a Robin with his red breast, but 

 every now and then he half spread his tail and 

 showed the white on it. A few days later, on 

 the nth of June, Dr. Holland and I went to a 

 forest beyond Schlart to take the nest of a 

 Honey-Buzzard. In the forest we several times 

 heard the alarm note of the Red-breasted Fly- 

 catcher, a pink, pink, pink, something like the 

 Spink of a Chaffinch, but softer, clearer, and 

 quicker. Our guide showed us presently a nest, 

 scarcely five feet from the ground, in the hollow 

 in a trunk of a beech tree, and we caught the 

 bird on the nest. He also shewed us a second 

 nest which he had taken a few days before, 

 likewise composed principally of green moss ; 

 but it had been built close against the stem of 

 a beech, supported by a bunch of small twigs, 

 which made a convenient shelf for it. In its 

 habits this charming little bird reminds one both 

 of a Flycatcher and a Tit. It catches insects on 

 the wing with ease, and flutters before the trunk 

 of a tree to pick an insect off the bark. 



