Hoiv it takes its Prey. 87 



for, though we carefully avoided giving her needless disturbance 

 that we almost ceased to use the door, yet there was an un- 

 avoidable passing to and fro to which she never seemed to get 

 accustomed, starting off her nest with a little flutter whenever 

 we came in sight; nor — although before she had finished sitting 

 the quick-growing shoots of the Virginian creeper, with its 

 broadly-expanding leaves, hid her nest so completely that, had 

 it not been for her own timidity, we need not have known of 

 her presence — she never lost this peculiar trait of character. 



The nest which Mr. Harrison Weir has drawn is, doubtless, 

 taken from life. I wish, however, he could have seen ours, 

 only about ten feet from the ground, a little dome of love, 

 embowered amongst young shoots, vine-like leaves and tendrils 

 — a perfectly ideal nest, in which our friend, who has as keen a 

 sense of natural beauty as any artist living, v/ould have de- 

 lighted himself. 



The colours of this bird are very unobtrusive : the upper 

 parts brownish-grey, the head spotted with brown, the neck 

 and breast streaked or spotted with greyish-brown. It is a 

 migratory bird, and arrives in this country about the middle or 

 end of May, remaining with us till about the middle of October, bv 

 which time the flies on which it lives have generally disappeared. 



Its mode of taking its winged prey is curious. Seated, 

 stock-still, in a twig, it darts or glides oft" at the sight of an 

 insect, like the bird of our picture, and seizes it with a little 

 snapping noise; then returns to its perch ready for more, and 

 so on ; incessantly darting out and returning to the same spot, 

 till it has satisfied its hunger, or m,oves off to another twig to 

 commence the same pursuit. 



