I30 THE BIRDS OF THE BRITISH ISLES. 



Family PANURID^. Reedlings. 

 Bearded Titmouse. Paimrus Mamiiais (Linn.). 



The British range of the sedentary Bearded Tit, Reedling, or 

 Reed-Pheasant (Plate 53), as it is often called, is now re- 

 stricted to the Norfolk Broads and to one locality in Devon, 

 though it formerly extended over fenny land in many southern 

 counties. On the Continent it is found in Holland, and 

 parts of Germany, France and Spain, but it seldom wanders 

 far from its summer haunts, and the few that have been taken 

 from time to time in localities in England in which it does not 

 breed are but casual wanderers, and certainly some of the 

 statements that it has occurred are due to errors in identification 

 or to fraud. 



It is hardly possible to confuse the Bearded Tit with any 

 other British bird ; its tawny back, long graduated tail and the 

 beard of the male are distinctive. Not many years ago, owing 

 to restriction of its haunts through drainage, and, in Norfolk, 

 the rapacity of collectors who paid the reed-men high prices 

 for birds and eggs, it was nearly numbered amongst "Lost 

 British Birds"; Mr. J. H. Gurney reckoned that in 1898 only 

 thirty-three pairs remained. Thanks to energetic protection 

 it has not only recovered lost ground but on certain broads is 

 actually common. The colour of the bird harmonises with the 

 old reeds which still remain throughout the breeding season, 

 rather than with the young green blades. When punting 

 through the narrow channels, tall reeds on either hand, the 

 visitor is greeted by sharp metallic notes, ching^ ching^ like the 

 twang of a banjo — the calls of the Reedlings. Other cries of 

 alarm or anxiety are described, but I have only heard the 

 scolding fwluit^ as Miss Turner spells it, and there is no true 

 song. Then a bird runs up a reed, holds with one leg bent, the 

 other straight, examines the intruder and drops back, or with 



