THE PIED FLYCATCHER
Muscicapa atricapilla, Linnæus
Similar in habits but different in appearance, the Pied Flycatcher is much rarer and more local than the preceding species. Its breeding haunts are chiefly in the west, in Wales, Lancashire, Westmoreland, and Cumberland, though it has occasionally bred in other counties. As a migrant, however, it occurs regularly in the south and east, and, though not very numerous, a goodly number pass through the country, entering by the south coast and leaving again in the east from Norfolk northwards. A return migration takes place in August and September.
During these migrations it may, of course, be found in various kinds of country, but its breeding haunts are restricted to well-wooded spots, gardens, orchards, and the outskirts of woods.
The song is more elaborate than that of the Spotted Flycatcher, but it is by no means a great effort, and may be syllabled “tzit tzit tze trui trui trui!” several times repeated. The nest is always placed in some hole, usually in a tree, though exceptionally in the crevice of a wall; it is composed of bents and moss, and lined with feathers and hair. The eggs, sometimes numbering as many as nine, are of a uniform pale blue. Insects form its chief diet, but it is not so exclusive an insect-feeder as the preceding species, nor does it seize so much of its food on the wing, but frequently drops from its perch to pick a spider or other creeping thing from the ground.
In spring the male is black, with a white forehead and white outer margins to the secondaries. The under parts are white. The female has the upper parts olive brown, and those parts which are white in the male, rather buffish in tint. The young bird is spotted, but after the first moult it resembles the female, except that the wing patches in the male are more distinct. The young male assumes his full plumage at his first spring moult. Length 5 in.; wing 3·1 in.
THE RED-BREASTED FLYCATCHER
Muscicapa parva, Bechstein
This species is of irregular and local distribution in Eastern Europe as far west as certain portions of Germany and South-east France, and it is only a few stragglers, driven out of their course by adverse weather or carried along by a rush of other migrants, that reach our coast.
In size it resembles our common species of Flycatcher, but differs in coloration. The adult males are of a uniform greyish brown above, with ashy grey cheeks and with the chin and throat reddish orange. The females and young lack the ash grey on the head, and the reddish orange of the chin and breast is very much paler. Young males do not acquire the red breast for two or three years. The four outer pairs of tail feathers have conspicuous white bases. Length 5·1 in.; wing 2·8 in.
THE SWALLOW
Hirundo rustica, Linnæus
Perhaps one of the greatest mysteries surrounding bird life, and awaking, even in the most unthinking, some sense of wonder, is the way in which some of the smallest and most delicate of birds cross enormous stretches of land and water twice a year. This mystery of migration has been especially typified in many countries and from olden times in the Swallow. Essentially a bird of the air, choosing the houses of man for nesting-places, and extremely abundant throughout our islands, he cannot fail to force himself on our attention and to become so associated in our minds with summer days that his first appearance in spring is eagerly looked for. As soon as the March winds have died down the first few stragglers make their appearance, and the early October gales are well over before the last has left.