eee Ed

  
 
  
   
    
     
  
   
   
    
 
  
   
   
 
  
  
 
  
  
 
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
   

Let not the astronomer, in the fulness of his wisdom

7 asting is all this! :
ee er the journeys of the Spotted

they are to pursue.
anet or foretelling the com

ine of a comet, consid
in tracing the course of a pl g

Oe Py AUTO ht
Flycatcher too trivial for a passing thought. 7 s 7.
hed to the cottage belonging to the Rey. William Scott, at Taplow, i Buckinghamshire,
In the garden attached to the ag ging

i ‘s have take ir abode for the las
a pair of Spotted Flycatchers have taken up ther abode tor tne
careful observations on their nidification, ibjer
din the garden, and on the 25th began to build in the

e wall. On the Ist of June the first egg was laid ; on
four, on the 5th five, and the female then began to sit ;
on the 24th the young birds opened their eyes,
eighed 240 grains ;” and thus the

t three summers; and as I have had the

ity of making some I here insert my notes on the subject :—
opportunity of making
« 1863, May 20, the Spotted Flycatcher first appeare
e, behind the branch of a cherry-tree on th
re two, on the 3rd three, on the 4th
re hatched ;

usual plac
the 2nd there we
on the 17th two were hatched, on the 18th all we
and flew in the afternoon of the 30th. A young one, captured this day, by
weight of the entire brood would be about 1200 grains. Now as their sole food had been insects, what
‘ + must have been destroyed by the parents for the

great must have been the good thus effected ! Surely then the presence |
good, however, without an alloy; and country- |

ast numbe support of themselves and their brood in the
a vast numbe

short space of twelve days ! and how
of such birds must be most beneficial. There is seldom any
people say that the bird is destructive to bees. This assertion I can neither affirm nor deny: if it be true,

it must be a troublesome neighbour to an apiary ; but I should think the insect would be too large to be seized

Still its trivial name of Bee-bird would indicate that it has such a propensity, as its
ference to the situation it frequently selects for its nest.
some districts of Scotland ; and this is

by its delicate mandibles.
other appellation of Beam-bird has re

I have before alluded to the Spotted Flycatcher being scarce in
verified by a fact communicated to me by the Duke of Argyll—that while it is plentiful in the neighbourhood
of his Grace’s seat at Inverary, it does not occur near Balmoral.
England, yet sufficiently so for it to be designated a common bird there. On the Continent it is a summer |
and to the shores of the Mediterranean, and of all countries as far east as

In Ireland it is less numerous than in

visitant of every part, from Lapl
the Crimea.

I have alluded above to the absence of vocal powers in this species, and, in the main, the term mute
may be correctly applied; but if the nest and young be approached, the inward-sounding triple chat-chat-
chat of the adult, expressive of alarm, may be heard ; at other times the bird gives utterance to a very feeble
inward song—so feeble, indeed, that a very near approach is necessary before it can be detected.

Besides gardens, the Spotted Flycatcher affects plantations, lawns, orchards, the skirts of woods, and
glades in the forest ; but, wherever it may be, it selects an exposed site whereon it may sit and survey the
open space around, and whence it may sally forth to capture any passing insect.

The situations chosen for the nest are much diversified; the more usual ones are the face of a rock, the
side of a faggot-stack, a hole in the wall, a beam in an out-building, the branch of a pear-tree, a vine, or a
honeysuckle, trained against a building ; but it has been known to construct it on the head of a garden-rake
left by accident near a cottage, in a bird-cage left, with the door open, suspended from a tree in the garden,
on the angle of a lamp-post in one of the streets of Leeds, where it reared its young; and my friend Mr.
Jesse mentions, in the second part of his ‘Gleanings in Natural History,’ that one was found on the top of
a lamp near Portland Place, in London, having five eggs in it, which had been sat upon. This nest, fixed in
the ornamental crown on the top of the lamp, was seen by Mr. Yarrell at the office of the Woods and
Forests in Whitehall Place.

The nest is a somewhat frail structure, composed of a few slight sticks, grasses, and shreds of bark, bound
together by cobwebs, with a lining of similar but finer materials. The eggs are four or five in number, of a
pale bluish white, irregularly dashed and blotched with rust-colour or light red, and are about nine lines in
length by seven lines in breadth.

 

The name of Spotted Flycatcher is more applicable to the young of this species than to the adult ; for from
the time it assumes its first plumage to the autumn moult it is very prettily marked, particularly over the
back—a portion of the dress which is plain brown in the old bird: by the time the young leave this country
ey are very similar to the adults, both sexes of which are alike in Colour ;
The solitary figure represents an adult male, of the size of life, on a branch of the Oak.