192 CHAPTER OF VARIETIES. 



it may be added, does not hop, but walks up and down among the 

 reeds, &c., amongst which in its wild state it is always found. 



I may take this opportunity of mentioning another curious habit of 

 the bird, which, at the time that article was written, I kept in confine- 

 ment. Among the seeds which were daily put in the cage for 

 the sustenance of his finch companion, was a small foreign seed of 

 which the bearded tit was particularly fond ; and as there were never 

 but a very few of these seeds at a time, the bird had of course some 

 difficulty to find them from among the rest j the method he therefore 

 took to scatter the seed about the cage, to get at the bottom of the 

 pan, was curious ; not with his bill, as a finch, or as indeed most 

 other small birds would have done, but by jumping into the pan, and 

 scratching with his feet, much in the manner of a gallinaceous bird. 



I have been informed by a dealer that, whatever number of these 

 birds they may have together in the same cage, (and I have myself 

 seen thirty or forty,) they always separate at night, and roost in 

 pairs. A male and female, that I possessed last autumn, appeared 

 extremely attached to each other, and when the cock bird died the hen 

 continued to call for him almost incessantly, for two or three weeks. 

 I afterwards procured another male, but she did not appear to take the 

 least notice of him, and in the afternoon of the same day she died in a 

 fit. In this female the moustaches were very conspicuous, though of 

 the same colour with the surrounding plumage ; I have since observed 

 them in two other hen bearded tits, but they are only visible when the 

 light falls on them in a particular direction ; they are more distinct in 

 the living bird, or in one but recently dead, than in stuffed specimens. 



I am obliged to Mr. Fowler for noticing the article in question, and 

 hope that the various observations that have been made upon the 

 habits and peculiarities of this elegant little bird, will assist in 

 furthering the endeavours of some more competent person than myself, 

 to assign the true and proper situation of the bearded tit, in a systema- 

 tic arrangement of birds. 



It may be as well here to observe, that the cut which accompanied 

 the article " On the habits of the bearded tit," was any thing but 

 a correct representation of the living bird, and gave it much more the 

 appearance of a species of Parus, than a drawing taken from life could 

 possibly have had. The form and attitudes of the living bearded tit 

 are most peculiar, and totally unlike those of any other British bird. 



Tooting, Surrey. 



