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(Muscicapa Atricapilla, Linn.—Le Traquet d'Angleterre, Buff.)
LENGTH nearly five inches. Bill black; eyes hazel; forehead white; top of the head, the back, and the tail black; the rump is dashed with ash; wing coverts dusky, greater coverts tipped with white; the exterior sides of the secondary quills are white, as are also the outer feathers of the tail; all the under parts, from the bill to the tail, are white; legs black. The female is much smaller, but longer tailed than the male; she is brown where he is black; she likewise wants the white spot on the forehead.
This bird is no where common; it is said to be most plentiful in Yorkshire, Lancashire, and Derbyshire. Since the cut was finished, which was done from a drawing presented to the Editor, we have been favoured with a pair of these birds, shot at Benton, in Northumberland: we suppose them to be male and female, as one of them wanted the white spot on the forehead; in other respects it was similar to the male: the upper parts in both were black, obscurely mixed with brown; the quill feathers dark reddish brown; tail dark brown, the exterior edge of the outer feather white; legs black.
The nest of this bird, with a very great number of young, was found in a hole of a tree, in Axwell Park, June 18, 1801:* the parent birds, but particularly the male, were extremely expert in catching the small flies with which they incessantly fed their young. The female, after she had fed her young, always jerked up her tail.
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