Perching Birds. 
85 
The nest is an artless structure of dry grass with a lining of horse-hair, but it is 
skilfully decorated outside with cobwebs and lichens so as to assimilate to the 
surroundings of the bark of the tree, in a crevice of which it is generally placed, but, 
like the Robin, the Flycatcher is a confiding bird, and often builds its nest on the 
trellis-work against a house or conservatory. The eggs are from four to six in 
number, and are buffy-white or greenish-white, spotted and blotched with reddish- 
brown, with grey underlying markings. 
One great difference which separates the present species 
from the common Flycatcher is the contrast in the colour of 
the sexes, the male being black, with the under-surface white. 
THE PIED 
FLYCATCHER. 
(Ficedula atricapilla.) 
a white patch 
the wing, and the outer tail-feathers 
also white for the most part. The female is brown with the tips of the greater 
wing-coverts white, the upper tail-coverts and tail black, excepting the outer feathers, 
which are, to a great extent, white : the sides of the face and under parts are pale 
ochreous brown, shading off into white on the abdomen and under tail-coverts. 
The breeding-range of the Pied Flycatcher extends throughout Europe, and it 
breeds up to 69° in Scandinavia. To Great Britain it is a visitor in summer, and 
is decidedly local, nesting in the northern counties of England and Wales, as well as 
in Scotland. In Norway it builds its nest under the eaves of the farm-houses, and 
in the boxes which are often put up for its accommodation ; at other times 
it nests in the hole of a tree or wall. It resembles our Common Flycatcher in 
general habits, but in some respects reminds one of a Chat in its ways ; like the 
last-named species it feeds principally on flies and other small insects, but also 
devours berries in the autumn. The nest has no pretensions to architecture and is 
composed of grass and leaves with a little moss and a few feathers. The eggs are 
quite different from the red-spotted ones of the majority of Flycatchers, being of a 
pale blue colour and varying from four to eight in number. They are smaller than 
those of the Hedge-Sparrow and more brittle, while the position of the nest should 
always render any doubt as to the authenticity 
of the eggs of the two species impossible. 
This is a little bird, 
not unlike a Robin in 
appearance, as it has a 
red breast, bordered from 
the forehead down the 
sides of the neck with light bluish grey. It 
can, however, be easily recognised by its ashy- 
brown colour and blackish tail-feathers, which 
have the basal two-thirds white. The female 
is browner than the male, and does not show 
the grey on the forehead or sides of the neck, The Red-Breasted Flycatcher. 
THE 
RED-BREASTED 
FLYCATCHER. 
(Siphia parva.) 
