THE RED-BREASTED FLYCATCHER.
[To THE EDITOR OF TEE "SPECTATOR."] Snt,—In your issue of the 27th ult. there appeared a letter giving an account of the supposed nidifieation of Muscicapa parva (red-breasted flycatcher) in South Wales. The breeding area of this bird lies in the districts to the north of Mongolia, most nests being discovered upon the Yablonoi Mountains in Southern Siberia. No nests of this bird have ever been obtained in the British Isles ; yet, although there is no reason why this bird should not visit these islands as an abnormal migrant, that it should breed here is an impossibility. I pre- sume too, as no remark was made to the contrary, that the nest was found in May,—a fact which doubles the impossi- bility. As far as the description of the eggs goes, it may be said to tally with the correct description, yet a noteworthy fact was omitted in that an unmistakable inferiority in size is evident. Muscicapa parrots really is not, as its popular name implies, red-breasted ;;the " red " terminates at the base of the prepectoral region. The " breast " is pinkish mottled
with regular lines of reddish-brown, and cannot, therefore, be said to be "distinctly red." The genus and species of the unknown bird cannot be determined without examination of the bird itself, and the eggs, in addition to much more definite
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