SPOTTED FLYCATCHER. 325 



times pursue an unusually large insect for fifty yards or more; and then 

 the Flycatcher's peculiar flight is seen to perfection. This bird also often 

 visits manure-heaps, feeding on the small beetles; and it may be seen 

 searching old walls for food, by fluttering in front of, and occasionally 

 clinging to, them. 



The Spotted Flycatcher often seeks its meal in the dusk of the evening, 

 pursuing various small moths and beetles ; and it is one of the earliest 

 birds astir in the light summer mornings, its monotonous call-notes 

 being heard just as early as the songs of the Thrush and Blackbird. 

 The food of this species is composed largely of insects, especially 

 of flies and gnats ; spiders and beetles are also eaten, as well as various 

 kinds of butterflies and moths ; and, on the authority of Collett, it is said 

 to feed on berries in the autumn months, and is then caught in snares 

 laid for Thrushes, and baited with the berries of the mountain-ash. 



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 ~t, zt ; 

 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 zt-chick. 



Although the Spotted Flycatcher is capable of rapid undulating flight, 

 it but rarely avails itself of its powers, and seems unwilling to fly for long 

 distances at a time. Its usual mode of progression is from tree to tree or 

 bush to bush; and when once it has taken up its summer-quarters, it 

 rarely strays far away from them until it leaves them in the autumn for 

 its winter home. The date of its departure is a comparatively early one ; 

 this bird leaves our shores long before the last Swallows take their depar- 

 ture, and is rarely seen after the third week in September. 



Although the Spotted Flycatcher arrives here in ^May, its nest is seldom 

 found before the latter end of the month, and sometimes not until early 

 June. Its breeding-grounds are gardens, orchards, well-timbered parks, 

 and woods, on the outskirts of which the birds may be repeatedly seen in 

 search of their insect prey. The nesting-site is a varied one^ — in the 

 crevices of the bark of old trees, in trellis-work overgrown with creeping 

 plants, on the horizontal limbs of trees (usually near the trunk), and 

 on wall-trained fruit-trees. A favourite place is in shallow holes in tree- 

 trunks, such as a small cavity formed by the action of the rain rotting the 

 wood where a branch has been broken away. In all instances, however, it 

 is well supported, on one side at least, either by the trunk of the tree or by 



