PIED FLYCATCHER. 375 
the hazel, and fibres, the interior lined with thin straws and wool; eggs 
thickly spotted with brown.” ‘ 
Dr. Stanley, of Whitehaven, seems to have investig-ated the habits 
of this bird with care and accuracy. We cannot find,” he says, “ a 
single well-authenticated fact of its having- been met with in this 
country during- the winter season ; indeed, all the testimony upon which 
any reliance can be placed, is decidedly ag-ainst the supposition that it 
is indig-enous, and tends strongly to prove that it is only a summer 
bird of passage. For instance, Mr. Bolton, in his Harmonia Ruralis, 
says that it visits the West Riding of Yorkshire, and departs with its 
young in September. The Rev. Mr. Dalton, of Copgrove, (also in the 
West Riding of Yorkshire,) states that he has frequently seen it about 
his house in the summer, but does not recollect ever to have noticed it 
in the winter. Dr. Heysham, in his Catalogue of Cumberland Ani- 
mals, observes that the Pied Flycatcher appears about the same time as 
the Spotted, but is not so common ; and for the last three years we 
have noticed it regularly during the spring and summer, in Cumber- 
land, but as yet have never been able to see, hear of, or procure a 
single specimen in the winter, notwithstanding we have repeatedly 
searched for it in all the winter months, during the above period ; nor 
can we find, from the inquiries we have made, that it has ever been 
seen, at this season of the year, in those parts of Westmoreland where 
it constantly resorts in great numbers.” 
The migration of this species appears to be principally confined to 
the northern counties, as it is seldom observed beyond Yorkshire, and 
rarely seen in the south of England, although it has occasionally been 
met with in Norfolk, Suffolk, Middlesex, Surrey, and Dorsetshire ; 
and Mr. Graves, in his British Ornithology, states, that in the summer 
of 1812 he found a nest of this bird, with young, at Peckham, in 
Surrey. In some parts of Westmoreland it is very plentiful, especially 
in the beautiful and extensive woods surrounding Lowther Castle, the 
magnificent and princely residence of the Earl of Lonsdale, where we 
have seen it in very great numbers, and where it has bred unmolested, 
and almost unknown, for years. On the contrary, we have reason to 
think it has not resorted to the vicinity of Carlisle more than five or 
six years, and, as far as we have yet been able to ascertain, only to one 
locality, where it is evidently upon the increase. 
In this situation the males generally arrive about the middle of 
April, the females not until ten or fifteen days afterwards ; they com- 
Mag. of Nat. Hist. i. 394. 
1 
