ON THE PIED FLYCATCHER. 149 
considered it to be an occasional visitor merely : 
this latter opinion, however, must be abandoned, as 
it certainly breeds year by year in the woods on the 
borders of Ullswater. The prevalence of the idea 
that this species does not migrate may be attributed 
principally to the assertion of Montagu, that it 
“rarely, if ever, makes its appearance in the southern 
parts of the island” (see the Supplement to the 
‘Ornithological Dictionary’); but Messrs. Sheppard 
and Whitear, in their “ Catalogue of the Norfolk and 
Suffolk Birds,” published in the ‘Transactions of the 
Linnean Society,’ vol. xv. part 1, state, that they 
have “seen a specimen of this bird which was killed 
near Cromer,” that “two others were caught by Mr. 
Downes in his garden at Gunton, in Suffolk, and a 
fourth was shot at Keswick, near Norwich.’ Mr. 
Selby, also, in his ‘ Illustrations of British Ornitho- 
logy,’ informs us that he has seen specimens from 
Dorsetshire ; consequently Montagu’s observation 
loses much of its force ; indeed, as the habits of this 
bird indicate that it preys chiefly on insects in their 
winged or perfect state, there can be little doubt 
that it is migratory: a sufficient reason, however, 
why the fact has not been more clearly ascertained 
will be found in its great rarity and partial distri- 
bution. In Lancashire I have never seen this 
species earlier in the year than April, nor later than 
September. 
T have long known that the Pied Flycatcher breeds 
