208 DENTIROSTRES. 



1NSESSORES. 



DENTIROSTRES. MUSCICAPWJE. 



PLATE XLI. 



PIED FLY-CATCHER. 



MuSCICAPA LUCTUOSA. 



The Pied Fly-catcher, called also the Coldfinch, by 

 Bewick and Selby, is an occasional visitant in Britain in the 

 summer months, and in winter returns to its warmer quarters, 

 in Italy, and along the borders of the Mediterranean, where 

 it is very abundant from October until March. The suppo- 

 sition that the Pied Fly-catcher was a permanent visitor here, 

 but only very rarely met with, is unfounded. Bewick gives, 

 as usual, a very correct and beautiful representation of the 

 male bird, and it is to be regretted that he has not also 

 figured the female of this species, since the descriptions given 

 of it by different ornithologists do not agree in every respect. 

 We figure, in our plate, the male bird in adult summer 

 plumage, and above it a female of the same age. 



This Fly-catcher moults twice a year, which causes some 

 difference in the colours of its plumage ; and, as there are 

 other species which bear much resemblance to it, care should 

 be taken to consider the season when a specimen is obtained, 

 although the measurement of the wings will at any period 

 decide the question ; the wings of our Pied Fly-catcher 

 being shorter, by half an inch, than those of the M. albi- 

 collis, a species nearly allied, and equally abundant on the 

 Continent. 



