376 



PIED FLYCATCHER. 



mence nidification early in May, and the young are excluded about the 

 first or second week in June. We have hitherto invariably found their 

 nests in the hole of a tree, sometimes at a considerable height, occa- 

 sionally near the surface of the ground, and, for two successive years, 

 in the stump of a felled tree. In texture and formation the nest is very 

 similar to that of the fauvette, blackcap, and whitethroat, being only 

 slightly put together, composed almost entirely of small fibrous roots 

 and dried grass, always lined with a little hair, and generally a few 

 decayed leaves on the outer side, but entirely without moss. Their 

 eggs vary in number : we have found their nest with five, six, and 

 now and then with seven ; their colour a pale green, and so greatly 

 resembling the eggs of the redstart, that it is frequently very difficult 

 to distinguish them, unless contrasted together : they are, however, 

 far from being so elegantly made, of a rounder form, and rather less, 

 weighing from twenty -three to thirty grains. 



From the very early period of the year that a supposed Flycatcher's 

 nest was noticed by Mr. Bolton, amongst the branches of an almond- 

 tree, we have very little doubt but that it was actually belonging to the 

 hedge sparrow, the earliest breeder, and the only one that lays blue 

 eggs in such a situation. It is possible such an opinion was induced 

 by the appearance of the Pied Flycatcher on, or in the neighbourhood 

 of, the tree. 



The males, soon after their arrival, should the weather be at all 

 favourable, will frequently sit for a considerable time on the decayed 

 branch of a tree, constantly repeating their short, little varied, although 

 far from unpleasing song, every now and then interrupted by the pur- 

 suit and capture of some passing insect. Their alarm-note is not very 

 unlike the word chuck, which they commonly repeat two or three 

 times when approached, and which readily leads to their detection. 

 The manners and habits of the Pied Flycatcher, have considerable 

 affinity to those of the redstart ; they arrive about the same time, asso- 

 ciate together, and often build in the same holes, for which they will 

 sometimes contend. On one occasion we found a dead female redstart 

 in the nest of a Pied Flycatcher, containing two eggs ; and at another 

 time, when both these species had nests within a few inches of each 

 other, upon the redstart's being removed, the female redstart took 

 forcible possession of the Flycatcher's nest, incubated the eggs, and 

 brought up the young. 1 



• " On the third of June last," says Mr. Blackwall, " I procured a 



1 Mag. of Nat. Hist. iii. 173. 



