114 
MUSCICAPIDiE. 
arrival at Selborne more than once to be so late as the 20th of 
May. It remains in the north of Ireland until autumn is very 
far advanced. 
In addition to the ordinary places selected for nidification 
here, as trees, holes in walls, &c., I have seen a nest at the Falls, 
resting in part upon an aperture in a wall, and partly on the 
branch of a fig-tree trained against it. Garden walls, indeed, seem 
to be favourite sites for the nest. This is generally of careless 
construction, and formed of various materials, occasionally of 
moss, to which is sometimes added hair, cobwebs, and feathers; 
the last not being always used, even as lining. An observant 
friend states that a nest placed against the unglazed window of 
an outhouse at Beechmount, was so composed of cobwebs inside 
and outside, that no other material was visible. From its choice 
of this fragile building substance, the spotted flycatcher is called 
cobweb bird in some parts of England. On the nest alluded to 
being approached when it contained young, the parent bird was 
very bold, flying angrily at the intruder, uttering shrill cries, and 
approaching him so near that it might almost have been struck 
with his hand.* 
A pair of these birds is said to have built their nest on the 
angle of a lamp-post in one of the streets of Leeds, and brought 
up their young there ; f in the ornamental crown surmounting a 
lamp near Portland Place, London, a nest was also constructed, in 
which five eggs were laid and incubated. J That a pair might 
have had similar intentions in Belfast, was supposed on the 8th of 
June, 1842, when one was seen from our parlour in Donegal 
Square to alight on a lamp-post a few yards distant from the 
window, where it was soon joined by another, and both continued 
there for some time, making occasional sorties after flies, but 
still returning to the lamp -post. This site was not, however, 
* In Macgillivray’s Brit. Birds, vol. iii. p. 522, most interesting memoranda on 
the number of times during one whole day that a pair of these birds fed their young 
are given from the observation of Mr. Durham Weir ; who adds, that “they beat 
off most vigorously all kinds of small birds that approach their nest.” 
f Atkinson’s Compendium. 
| Jesse’s Gleanings, second series, and Yarrell’s Brit. Birds. 
