20 BRITISH BIRDS. WITH THEIR NESTS AND EGGS. 
Family—UUSCIC.APIDA:. 
Tue SpoTTteD FLYCATCHER. 
Muscicapa grisola, LINN. 
OWARD SAUNDERS states that this species ‘‘ breeds as far north as 
Tromsé, in Norway, and Archangel, in Russia; while southward it is 
tolerably abundant throughout Europe, nesting down to the northern shores of the 
Mediterranean; also on the African side, and in Asia Minor, Palestine, Persia, 
Turkestan, and Siberia as far as Irkutsk. In winter it visits India, Arabia, and 
Africa to the Cape of Good Hope.” 
In Great Britain the Spotted Flycatcher breeds in suitable localities in every 
county, but in England and Wales it is far more abundant, and more generally 
distributed than in Scotland and Ireland: its distribution in the latter island is 
certainly local, and it is probable that some counties are unsuited to its requirements. 
The colouring of this bird is decidedly sombre, its upper surface being brown, 
slightly paler and with dark shaft-streaks on the crown; the wings and tail darker 
brown, with paler margins to the wing-coverts and secondaries: its under surface 
is greyish white; the breast and flanks slightly buff brownish, and streaked with 
brown, as also is the throat; bill dark brown; feet black; iris dark hazel. The 
female resembles the male. The young have buff centres to the feathers of the 
upper surface, whilst the wing-coverts, secondaries, and tail-coverts are tipped with 
this colour. 
The Spotted Flycatcher haunts the outskirts of woods, high hedges on the 
borders of parks and pleasure-grounds, plantations of hazel, orchards, and gardens, 
and in such places it breeds, usually placing its nest either in a slight depression 
in the branch of a tree, frequently near the trunk, or on the branch of a fruit-tree 
trained against a wall; it has, however, been known to build in crevices of the 
bark of old trees, in trellis-work overgrown with creepers, and I have taken the 
nest from the hollow top of a tree stump, from a tall hawthorn hedge, and one in 
my collection was taken from a narrow hole in a wall.* The form of the nest 
varies in accordance with its surroundings; if placed upon a branch or in the top 
* It is said also to have been found among roots overhanging water, and in metal gutters on roofs of 
houses. : 
