678 
Wild Birds Useful and Injurious. 
The Flycatcher. 
The Spotted Flycatcher (Ifitscicajja gnsola) is a summer visitor, 
arriving in May from its winter quarters in Africa. It is about 
five and a half inches in length, and its plumage (fig. 6) is 
gi’eyish-brown above, the lower parts being dull white with a 
few darker markings. The young are beautifully mottled with 
buff, and present a very different appearance from that of their 
parents. Notwithstanding its sober dress, it soon makes its pre- 
sence known by its conspicuous habit of taking up a position on 
the top of some post, or other convenient station, whence it darts 
into the air to capture a passing insect, frequently returning to 
fiU. G.— Spotteil Fljcatclier, Muscicajiu grisolu. 
the same place to continue its w’atch. As in the case of other 
insectivorous birds, the “ snick ” of its bill when it snaps up 
its prey is distinctly audible. Amongst its many local names 
are those of beam-bird, bee-bird, rafter-bird, post-bird, wall- 
bird, cherry-chopper, cherry-sucker, and cobweb- bird. The nest, 
a very pretty and compact structure, is commonly placed in 
standard or trained fruit trees, in ivy, trellis-work, or holes in 
buildings, and on beams in outhouses. There are, however, 
few places in which the spotted flycatcher will not occasionally 
rear its young, its ideas on this point being decidedly original. 
'I’he eggs are usually very pale blue in ground colour, pro- 
fusely spotted with reddish-brown ; but 1 once found a nest, 
built in the side of a hay-stack, containing five eggs of a de- 
licate blue colour, with the reddish markings almost imper- 
