THE PIED FLYCATCHER 79 



hopped about uneasily in a neighbouring tree, uttering its mono- 

 tonous and unmusical chirrup, but molested me no further. It 

 would seem then that the garden bird, grown familiar with the 

 human form, was unsuspicious of danger, while the other, who had 

 not been accustomed to see her sanctuary approached, immediately 

 took alarm. It is supposed that the same birds are in the habit of 

 returning annually to their old resort. Both the above incidents 

 tend to give weight to this opinion : one of the birds having been 

 reared, probably in the garden, and so having been accustomed to 

 the sight of men from the first ; the other having been always 

 a recluse. The fact which fell under my own notice, that a nest 

 was buUt, and a brood reared for three successive years in exactly 

 the same spot, is, I think, conclusive evidence that either the same 

 birds or their immediate descendants were the architects, it 

 being scarcely credible that three several pairs of birds should 

 have fixed on the same spot by accident. Mr. Denham Weir 

 has observed that the Spotted Flycatcher consumes only a 

 day and a half in the construction of its nest, and that a pair of 

 birds which he watched fed their young no less than five hundred 

 and thirty-seven times in one day, beginning at twenty-five minutes 

 before four o'clock in the morning, and ending at ten minutes before 

 n:ne in the evening. The young birds assume the adult plumage 

 their first year, and soon learn to hawk for their prey as well as 

 At parents. I have recorded elsewhere an instance in which the 

 . -irent birds contrived to feed a disabled young one after it had 

 .ett the nest. The Flycatcher arrives in England about the end 

 of April, and leaves about the end of September. 



THE PIED FLYCATCHER 



MUSCfCAPA ATRICAPILLA 



Upper plumage and tail black, the wings black, with the central coverts white ; 

 scapulars edged with white ; under plumage white. In the female the 

 black is replaced by greyish brown, the white is dingy, and the three 

 lateral tail feathers are edged with white. Length five inches. Eggs 

 pale blue, generally without spots. 



The Pied Flycatcher, so called from its feathers being varied with 

 black and white, is a smaller bird than the preceding, and by no 

 means so common, being very local as a breeder. It appears, indeed, 

 to be mainly confined to the northern counties of England, where 

 it arrives about the middle of April, and builds its nest of dry leaves, 

 small roots, grass, and a little hair, loosely put together, in the hole 

 of a tree. There it lays from five to seven pale blue eggs, very 

 like, both in size and colour, those of the Redstart, which it also 

 much resembles in habits. It has more claim to be considered a 

 songster than the Spotted Flycatcher. In places where it is frequent 

 it is often observed to settle on the decayed stump of a tree, con- 



