88 The Spotted Fly -catcher. 



When they have young, the number of flies consumed only 

 by one little family must be amazing. It is recorded* in one 

 instance that a pair of fly-catchers, beginning to feed their 

 nestlings at five-and-twenty minutes before seven in the morn- 

 ing, and continuing their labour till ten minutes before nine at 

 night, supplied them with food, that is to say with flies, no less 

 than five hundred and thirty-seven times. The gentleman who 

 made these observations says: — "Before they fed their young 

 they alighted upon a tree for a few seconds, and looked round 

 about them. By short jerks they usually caught the winged 

 insects. Sometimes they ascended into the air and dropped 

 like an arrow ; at other times they hovered like a hawk when 

 set on its prey. They drove off most vigorously all kinds of 

 small birds that approached their nest, as if bidding them to go 

 and hunt in their own grounds, where there were plenty of flies 

 for them. Sometimes they brought only one fly in their bills, 

 sometimes several, and flies of various sizes." 



This bird seems to become attached to particular localities, 

 where he finds himself conveniently situated and undisturbed. 

 Mr. ]\ludie mentions, in his "Feathered Tribes," "that a pair 

 of these birds had nested in his garden for twelve successive 

 years." What is the length of life of a fly-catcher I cannot 

 say ; but probably if they were not the same birds, they would 

 be their descendants — birds hatched there, and consequently at 

 home. The Rev. J. G. Wood also speaks of the same locality 

 having been used by this bird for twenty successive years ; and 

 he supposes that the young had succeeded to their ancestral 

 home. He gives also an interesting account of the commence- 



* See Maegillivray's "British Birds" 



