THE SPOTTED FLYCATCHER. 21 
of a hedge it is circular, if on a fruit-branch trained against a wall, semicircular, 
and the nest which I obtained from a hole in a wall was of the exact shape of a small 
slipper; the materials of the nest also vary somewhat, but they generally consist 
of twigs and roots, or fine grasses, mixed with a quantity of green moss interwoven 
with spiders’ webs, and lined with fine grass, hair, and sometimes two or three 
feathers. The eggs vary in number from three to six, five being the most usual 
number, the ground colour being frequently pale pea-green, but sometimes bluish- 
white, blotched, zoned, mottled or spotted with various depths of ferruginous red- 
brown; when the mottling is very dense the egg, excepting in its inferior size 
and narrower shape, somewhat reminds one of that of the Robin, and when the 
markings are chiefly represented by a zone near the larger end, it vaguely suggests 
that of the Greenfinch. 
The Spotted Flycatcher rarely reaches us before May; but, nevertheless is in 
no hurry to go to nest; the earliest date at which I have taken its eggs was on 
the 3oth of that month, and they are rarely obtained before June. 
As proof that birds are sometimes unable to recognize their own eggs, the: 
following fact (already recorded in my Handbook of British Oology) is of interest: 
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 
of hazels. I substituted three hazel-nuts for the eggs, and these completely filled 
the cavity of the nest. On the 8th of June I returned and found the hen sitting; 
she had ejected one of the hazel-nuts to make room for a fourth egg. 
Respecting the notes of this species, Seebohm says:—‘‘It is very widely and 
popularly believed that the Spotted Flycatcher is not gifted with any powers of 
song; but this is an error. His song is heard but rarely, it is true, and is uttered 
in such a low tone as to be scarcely heard a few yards away. It is given forth 
both when the bird is sitting at rest and when fluttering in the air after insects. 
It consists of a few rambling notes, not unlike part of the Whinchat’s song. The 
monotonous call-note may perhaps be best expressed by the letters <¢, s¢; it is 
uttered in rapid succession from one perching-place, and every now and then the 
tail is jerked to and fro with graceful motion. Sometimes a second syllable is 
added to the call-note, which then sounds like st-chick.” 
I think that Seebohm is incorrect in this last statement: in 1894 I had a 
family of young Spotted Flycatchers in my garden for over a week, and I found 
that their call to their parents was 2¢-chick, and the answer of the parents was </. 
I never heard an adult bird use the longer call. 
The food of the Spotted Flycatcher in the summer months consists of insects, 
spiders, and centipedes, but in the autumn it is said to eat the berries of the 
VoL. IL EK i) 
