174 
NATURE NOTES 
pressed low upon her treasures, which she refused for some 
seconds to leave. Then she flitted off without a sound, and 
waited near. The six warm eggs were more like the redstart’s 
than the flycatcher’s, of a clear greenish-blue tinge on white. 
A few days later, when she was sitting the closest, the cock 
came occasionally to carry her food. He would pause on a 
bough for a return stare at me, when I perceived that he could 
sing a few notes with ease while still holding an insect in his 
beak, — as, indeed, all birds can. These few notes probably 
resulted from nervousness ; for I have known the cock blackcap, 
when I have flushed him from the nest, to sing a short strophe 
in my face ; but the pied flycatcher never at any time uttered his 
alarm cry at me, and the pair came to show no fear at all of 
human beings, while a cat or a dog below the nest threw them 
into a passion of terror. 
Indeed, I almost surmised the cracking of the eggs from the 
nervous behaviour of the hen. On June 3 she was off her nest 
some time, and upon the shady bank — at quite a distance — 
could be heard hounding some enemy along with other birds 
that had nests near, crying “ spick, spick,” and throwing her 
wings high. The cock, with better nerve, remained indifferent. 
I saw no food carried into the nest that day or the next, and the 
hen when she entered remained awhile as if to brood, but on the 
5th both carried food in, and feeding after that was conducted 
regularly and increasingly. The hen was less to be observed in 
her collection of supplies, but the cock took a bold post on the 
rail or dahlia-stick, and was constantly seen about his task. 
This species catches its food much in the manner of the 
redstart — more, indeed, than in that of the spotted flycatcher. 
Part is caught within the foliage of a tree, the bird winging 
about the leaves as it nips up the startled flies ; but much is 
taken from the ground, and I have often watched the woodland 
birds, as well as our garden-dwellers, survey — from some low 
bough — the ground with keen eye, and then pounce down upon 
the moving, creeping creature. Our bird killed what he caught 
— beetle, or wee grub,* or grass-fly — by a smart rap on the 
ground or the rail, before carrying it to the youngsters. He 
changed his hunting-ground from side to side, but the area was 
limited, more so than that of the redstart, wdiich species flies 
rapidly to nest from a tolerably safe distance. Sometimes, if the 
weather was cold and wet, he economised his journeys, and took 
up quite a beakful at a time. Indeed, on June 16 came such a 
storm of rain with a bitter north wind as broke the plants and 
flowers, and drowned many nestlings in open nests. 
Our birds, though their nestlings were safe within the box, 
had some ado to get them food ; and to see them, upon some 
slight abatement of tlie storm, drift about the open ground, which 
they seemed to prefer to the drenched foliage, in search of some- 
thing to eat, was to realise their sorry need. The cleanliness of 
the nest, too, had become their care, and they would then fly 
