158 BIRD GALLERY. 



as a straggler in Scotland; in Ireland it is unknown. Its food 

 consists of insects, beech-mast, acorns, and various kinds of hard seeds, 

 and it is extremely partial to hazel-nuts, which it wedges in some 

 crevice and breaks open by repeated blows o£ its strong bill. Hence 

 its names of Nuthatch [i. e. Nuthack) or Nutjobber. A nest of dry 

 leaves and bark is formed in a hole in a tree or in some other cavity, 

 the aperture being plastered up with clay, so as to leave only a narrow 

 entrance. From five to seven white eggs, blotched with reddish-brown, 

 are laid about the end of April. 



Norfolk, May. 



Presented by Lord Walsingham. 



No. 61. SPOTTED FLYCATCHER. (Muscicapa grisola.) 



This familiar visitor usually appears in the south of England about 

 the first week in May, and is generally distributed throughout the 

 British Islands during the summer months. Its food consists prin- 

 cipally of insects, which it darts at and captures on the wing ; but, in 

 autumn, it sometimes feeds on berries. The nest, made of moss, 

 lichen and strips of bark, and lined with wool, hair and feathers, is usually 

 placed among creepers or trelliswork, or in a hole in a wall or a tree, 

 often on a beam of some shed, but many other sites are selected. The 

 eggs vary in number from four to six, and are pale greenish-white, 

 spotted and blotched with light red and lavender. Two broods are 

 often raised in a season. 



This is one of the few species which nest in our London parks and 

 gardens. 



Norfolk^ June. 



Presented by Lord fValsingham. 



No. 62. PIED FLYCATCHER. (Muscicapa atricapilla.) 



This Flycatcher is a regular visitor to Great Britain, arriving towards 

 the end of April and returning southward in autumn. During the 

 breeding-season it is very locally distributed, being principally met 

 with in Wales and the western and northern counties of England, and, 

 more rarely, in Scotland. In Ireland it only occurs as an accidental 

 straggler during the migration. It feeds chiefly on insects, which are 

 sometimes taken on the wing, but more often on the ground. The 

 nest, made of dry grass and roots and lined with hair, is placed in a 

 deep hole in a tree or sometimes in a wall. The eggs, from six to 



