BIRDS OF BROADLAND AND STREAMSIDE. 209 



admiration, especially for the attentive hard- 

 working male. The individual depicted in the 

 illustration reproduced on page 211 shared the 

 duties of incubation with his mate, and throughout 

 the day I spent in their company they changed 

 places on an average once every half-hour. When 

 the male was at home he sat as if he enjoyed the 

 work and appreciated his responsibilities, but not 

 so his mate. vShe fidgetted all the time, tidying 

 the appearance of the nest, turning the eggs 

 over, preening herself, and anxiously peering 

 into the reeds and listening for the coming of 

 her husband. Every time his sweet, ringing, /sjwg', 

 tsing call-note sounded above the rustling music 

 of the tall reeds swaying in the wind, she seemed 

 glad, and vacated her post of duty with un- 

 motherly alacrity. 



As my brother and I have publicly been 

 charged with something uncommonly like fraud 

 for publishing native-taken photographs of the 

 bearded tit alive and well amidst its natural sur- 

 roundings, and since it has been recently included 

 in a list of "Lost British Birds," it is extremely 

 encouraging to read in a chapter, contributed to 

 Dutt's just issued work on the Norfolk Broads, by 

 the Rev. M. C. H. Bird — one of the best practical 

 field naturalists in this country — that the species 

 has steadily increased in numbers during the last 

 decade. 



