THE SPOTTED FLYCATCHER, 
115 
chosen, but in a more natural one, among ivy on an adjacent 
wall in the square, it was afterwards ascertained that they had a 
nest. In a town-garden here, a pair of these birds built for a 
long period annually; too many of the choicest sites always 
“ offering,” where bad bricks had crumbled away and left “ ample 
space and verge enough ” for the summer mansion of the fly- 
catcher. The nest was at least partially screened from observation 
by the foliage of the fruit trees upon the wall ; the eggs were 
generally four in number. 
The Bev. Geo. Bobinson of Tanderagee informs me (1847) that 
the spotted flycatcher is as numerous in the demesne at Drumba- 
nagher, as he has ever seen it in the parks or pleasure-grounds of 
England. He has observed it, but not commonly, at other places 
in the county of Armagh, and also in Tyrone. Erom the vicinity 
of Londonderry, specimens were obtained for the Ordnance Survey 
collection. This species regularly visits the neighbourhood of 
Dublin. The Bev. Thomas Knox remarks, that it breeds about 
Killaloe, county of Clare, and has occasionally either two broods, 
or builds a second time if the first nest be destroyed, as on the 
1st of August, 1833, he saw one sitting on young birds, though 
on the 8th of June in the previous year, he knew a brood to have 
been hatched.* It is not uncommon, and breeds about Clonmel.t 
In the Eauna of Cork it is said to be a regular summer visitant 
to that county. 
The Pied Flycatcher ( Muscicapa atricapilla or M. luctuosa), a 
summer visitant to some parts of England, has not been met with in 
Ireland or Scotland. When on the 26th of April, 1841, in H.M.S. 
Beacon nearly ninety miles from Zante, the nearest land, and 130 from 
Navarino, a male white-collared flycatcher ( Muscicapa albicollis ) was 
caught on board, and on the following day, when about half that dis- 
tance from these places respectively, two or three more male birds flew 
on board, as did also the same number of females, either of M. albicollis 
or M. atricapilla , but more probably of the former species. 
* On this subject see note to White’s Selborne, p. 179, ed. 1837, and Journal of 
a Naturalist, p. 207. 
f Mr. Davis. 
