b 



3.26 BRITISH BIRDS. 



the wall against which the fruit-trees are trained. The materials which 

 compodc the nest are dry grass, cobwebs, moss, and perhaps a few feathers, 

 together with the wing-cases of various insects. It is lined with rootlets, 

 a thick bed of hair, and occasionally a few feathers. Owing to the peculiar 

 nature of the site, which affords so much siipport, the nest is small and 

 but loosely put together. 



The Spotted Flycatcher sometimes builds its nest in very curious situa- 

 tions, without the slightest attempt at concealment. When I used to go 

 to a day-school we had to pass through a doorway that separated the 

 garden from the shrubbery. The door itself had been taken away, but 

 the iron hinges on which it formerly swung still projected from the brick- 

 work. One day one of my schoolfellows pointed out to me a nest stuck 

 behind the upper hinge, just out of our reach. I laughed at him when 

 he told me that a bird had built it there, and pulled it down, telling him 

 that some boy must have put it there for a freak. He, however, assured 

 me that he had seen a bird fly from it, and climbed up and replaced the 

 nest behind the hinge as well as he could. The next morning I myself 

 saw the bird fly from the nest as we approached the doorway, and on 

 climbing up I was astonished to find that the nest contained an egg of a 

 Spotted Flycatcher. 



A very handsome nest of the Spotted Flycatcher in my collection is 

 somewhat larger than usual, and resembles certain nests of the Robin. 

 The lining contains no feathers, but is completely composed of fine 

 dry grass and a few hairs. It is deeply cup-shaped and the frontage 

 to the nest is broad. Externally it is chiefly composed of moss, long 

 stems of water-plants, grass-blades, and leaves of herbage — now dry 

 and withered, but evidently gathered in a green state. Here and there 

 may be seen parts of dead leaves almost skeletonized and a few scraps of 

 green lichens. Nests of this bird are sometimes composed largely of 

 sticks and fibrous roots, and then they are usually warmly lined with wool 

 and feathers. Each season the Spotted Flycatcher returns to the haunt 

 of its choice and rears its brood for years in succession in one favoured 

 place. Sometimes it will desert a locality for a season, especially if it is 

 repeatedly disturbed, but afterwards return to it again. 



The eggs of the Spotted Flycatcher vary in number from four to six, and 

 range from bluish white to pea-green in ground-colour, blotched, spotted, 

 and clouded with various shades of reddish brown. Some eggs are so 

 richly covered with spots as to hide the ground-colour, and resemble 

 very closely certain varieties of Robin's eggs ; others have the markings 

 confined to a zone round the larger end ; while many are more evenly 

 marked and singularly clouded with a faint roseate tinge, which adds 

 considerably to their beauty, but which soon fades after they are blown. 

 They vary in length from '8 to "7 inch, and in breadth from '62 to '52 inch. 



