SPOTTED FLYCATCHER. 21 
Famiry MUSCICAPIDA. 
SPOTTED FLYCATCHER. 
Musotcapa arisota, Linn. 
Pl. VI., figs. 7-10; and Pl. XXXVIL., fig. 8. 
Geogr. distr.—Europe generally as far as about 70° N. lat.; in Asia 
as far eastward as Dauria, and southward in Africa as far as the Cape; 
it arrives in Great Britain in April or May, and leaves again in August 
or September. 
Food.—Insects. 
Nest.—Composed of twigs and roots, or fine grasses, mixed with a 
quantity of green moss, interwoven with spiders’ web; lined with fine 
grass, hair, and sometimes two or three feathers; varying in shape 
from a semicircle to a complete cup according to its position. 
Position of nest.—Upon stumps of branches of old fruit trees, on 
the shattered and partly hollowed trunks of small trees, on branches 
of wall fruit trees (especially plum), in high hawthorn hedges, on low 
branches, or amongst roots of trees overhanging water, in holes in 
walls, in metal gutters on roofs of houses, &c. 
Number of eggs.—4-5. 
Time of nidification.—V-VI; June. 
I have taken the eggs of this species as early as the 
30th May, but it is rare to obtain them before June. 
On the 4th June, 1878, I removed three eggs from a 
rather small nest of the Spotted Flycatcher formed in 
the hollow top of a tree-stump in a small plantation. I 
substituted for the eggs three hazel nuts, which com- 
pletely filled the cavity of the nest. I returned on the 
8th of June and found the bird sitting; she had ejected 
one of the hazel nuts to make room for her fourth egg. 
I briefly noted this fact in the ‘ Zoologist’ for September, 
1878, as an evidence of the fact that birds are unable to 
recognise their own eggs. 
A large nest, chiefly lined with reddish hair, and con- 
taining two eggs as figured on Plate XXXVII., was taken 
out of a tall hawthorn hedge; I have described this nest in 
full in the ‘ Zoologist’ for December, 1883. 
A nest in my collection, of the shape of a slipper, was 
found in a hole in a wall in June, 1885, by my friend 
Mr. William Drake, of Kemsley, in Kent ; the nest contains 
three eggs, which completely fill the cavity. 
