loo LOST AND VANISHING BIRDS 



birds have been captured too. Here again we find 

 the supply of birds limited and unable to fill the 

 demand. Not only so : the Bearded Titmouse is a 

 resident species, strictly confined to its native reed 

 beds, so that when the British stock becomes 

 exhausted the bird will pass out of our fauna 

 completely, as so many other interesting forms 

 have already done. We are heartily glad to hear 

 that in some districts measures are being taken for 

 the better protection of the Bearded Titmouse. 

 We trust that these may prove successful, be more 

 generally applied, and strictly enforced ; for there 

 is evidence to show that the bird in some districts 

 especially is rapidly diminishing in numbers. We 

 appeal to the owners of the reed beds frequented 

 by this species to preserve it from extinction, and 

 hope that local Natural History Societies will 

 exert their widespread influence in the good cause. 

 Beyond the British area the Bearded Titmouse 

 has a most extensive range, being found over a 

 great part of Europe and Asia, at least as far east 

 as North-eastern Thibet. We find it an inhabit- 

 ant of the reed beds of Holland, Pomerania, and 

 Hungary, in France in the marshes of the Rhone 

 and Narbonne, in Spain, eastwards to Italy, South 

 Ruvssia, Turkestan, and South Siberia. To Holland 



