even as late as nine o’clock at niglit. This bird has no
power of voice beyond a harsh call-note.
A curious fact in reference to this bird was noticed by
the late Mr. Thomas Andrew Knight. A Flycatcher built
in his stove for several successive years. He observed that
the bird quitted its eggs whenever the thermometer in the
house was above 72° Fahr., and resumed her place upon the
nest again when the thermometer sunk below. The young
are hatched about the second week in Ju n e : when able to
leave the nest, they follow the parent birds, who feed them
until they can catch insects for themselves. When on
the look-out for food, they generally take their stand on
the top of a post, on the upper bar of a flight of rails, or
the extreme end of a branch of a tree, whence they dart off
on the approach of an insect, appear to catch it with ease
by a short and rapid movement, returning frequently to the
spot they had quitted, to keep watch as before. These birds
feed exclusively on winged insects, though they have been
accused of eating cherries and raspberries; and in this
belief the species in some parts of Kent goes by the name
of the Cherry-sucker, but they visit fruit-trees for the sake
of the flies which the ripening produce attracts, since 011
examination of the stomachs of Flycatchers killed under
such circumstances no remains of fruit were found.
White says that the Spotted Flycatcher only rears one
brood in this country; but many instances of this bird’s
producing a second hatch are known. Mr. Knox indeed
has recorded such an event for three successive seasons.
The Spotted Flycatcher is common during summer in all
the counties of Great Britain, though less frequent in
Scotland; and Thompson says that it is also a regular
summer-visitor to some parts of Ireland, and perhaps to
suitable spots throughout the island; but it would seem to
be very local and sparingly distributed even in the counties
in which it occurs, as Cork, Kilkenny, Tipperary, Clare,
Dublin, with those of the north-east part of Ulster. It is a
common bird throughout the European continent, its range
extending to lat. 69° N., at which elevation it is far from
scarce. Its eastern limits cannot at present be determined,
but it is found in Russia, being exceedingly numerous in the
south, and De Filippi met with it in Persia. Canon Tristram
speaks of it as arriving in Palestine on the 23rd of
April and the two following days in great numbers, and
remaining to breed there. I t also occurs in Arabia, and in
Africa southward to the confines of the Cape Colony; but it
does not seem to have been observed in any of the Atlantic
Islands.
The beak is dark brown ; the irides h azel; the head and
the whole of the upper surface of the body and wing-coverts
hair-brown, the wing- and tail-quills being a little darker,
with a few dark brown spots on the top of the h e a d ; the
tertials with a narrow margin of light brown ; the lower
parts dull white, with a patch of light brown across the
upper part of the breast, and a few dark brown streaks or
spots upon that and the chin, with a clear white space
between ; the sides and flanks tinged with yellowish-brown ;
legs, toes, and claws, black. Males and females are alike in
plumage.
The whole length of the bird is five inches and five-
eighths. From the carpal joint to the end of the longest
quill-featlier, three inches and tliree-eigliths.
The young, when ready to leave the nest, are truly
Spotted Flycatchers, each brown feather having a bufl-
coloured tip, the ends of the great wing-coverts forming a
pale wood-brown bar across the wing; lower surface white.
After their first moult, they may be distinguished from older
birds by the broader buff-coloured outer margins of the
tertials.
The vignette represents the breast bone of this bird.