FOR A MUSEUM. 



117 



ever remember to have seen eggs from different nests which bore much 

 resemblance to each other. One in my possession has the zone of spots 

 on the smaller end, and I have others which it would be impossible to 

 distinguish from those of the robin. 



The common grey fly-catcher (Muscicapa grisold) visits us in great 

 abundance, but very late in the spring ; and, what is singular, (being at 

 variance with the garden warbler, swift, wood-wren, and other late 

 summer visitants) is also very late in its departure. The sexes are 

 much alike ; a male should be procured early, and also a young one in 

 its nestling plumage, which is mottled, like that of a young wheatear. 

 I should have mentioned that all young birds should be procured, if 

 possible, about a fortnight or three weeks after they have left the nest : 

 that is, when their feathers are all quite developed, and before they have 

 begun to moult them. The pied fly-catcher {M. luctuosa) is here a rare 

 species, though not so much so as it has been described. I have two 

 nests which were taken in this neighbourhood, and which are built more 

 of moss, and contain less bass and other garden rubbish than those of 

 the common species ; they each contained three eggs, of a remarkably 

 spherical form, and very pale pea-green colour. Some circumstances 

 connected with one of these nests are worthy of being here recorded, as 

 showing the remarkable attachment of this species to the place it has 

 selected for nidification. A pair of pied fly-catchers took up their abode 

 in a garden near this place ; their first nest was robbed by a boy, and 

 another was soon built in the same situation (against the ivied trunk of 

 a large poplar), and four eggs laid ; these were destroyed by a snake ; 

 and a third nest was actually constructed on the top of the last, which, 

 with three eggs in it, and the broken egg-shells of the last adhering to 

 the bottom, was brought to me as a curiosity, in the supposition that it 

 was a nest of the common grey fly-catcher. I had it replaced as well as 

 could be done, in about a couple of hours after it had been removed, 

 hoping that after all the female would perhaps set ; but so much per- 

 secution had at length driven the unfortunate pair from the place, and 

 they were not seen afterwards : had the season been earlier, I would 

 have placed the eggs in the nest of some other species, but it was now 

 late in August, and very little incubation going forward. The two 

 sexes of the pied fly-catcher are very dissimilar, and both should, there- 

 fore, if possible, be procured for stuffing; the young I have never seen, 

 but from analogy should suspect it to be mottled. I am told that the 

 song of this fly-catcher is pleasing, but have never yet heard it ; the 

 common species is one of the least vocal of our native birds, though 



