516 PANURID^R. 



in substance, making up the exterior. In general, however, 

 the nest is built of leaves of the reed, intermixed more or 

 less with blades of sedge or grass, and is lined with the top 

 of the reed, the whole being placed in a tuft of grass or 

 nettles, or fixed among broken-down reeds, but it is never 

 suspended between the stems, and is always open or cup- 

 shaped, and thus in form as in material is quite unlike the 

 nest of any species of Titmouse. The eggs are from four 

 or five to seven or eight in number, measuring from "73 to 

 •61 by from '57 to '51 in., and in appearance differ entirely 

 from those of any other British bird, though perhaps they 

 have a leaning towards those of some of the Buntings. 

 They are white and shining but not very transparent, with a 

 few minute specks, splashes and short irregular lines of dark 

 reddish-brown, and are not subject to very much variety in 

 colour or marking. 



The food of this bird had been considered to consist en- 

 tirely of insects and the seeds of aquatic plants, until in 

 May, 1830, Mr. H. W. Dikes of Hull announced (Mag. 

 Nat. Hist. iii. p. 239) that small shell-bearing mollusks were 

 largely consumed by it. He found that in three examples 

 examined by him the crop did not contain a single seed, but 

 was completely filled with the Saccinca a)iq)Ji}bla in a jierfect 

 state, the shells being unbroken, though singularly closely 

 packed together. The crop of one bird, which was not 

 larger than a hazel nut, contained twenty of these mollusks, 

 some of them of a good size, besides four of the Piqia mus- 

 corum, the shell of all, fragile as that of the Snccinea is, 

 being quite uninjured. " The shell", he adds, "appears to 

 be passed into the stomach in the same perfect state, as I 

 discovered one, which I presume had been recently swallowed, 

 quite entire. They are not, however, voided in this state, 

 for I found the stomach to be full of small fragments of 

 shell, in a greater or less degree of decomposition. This 

 work of destruction is accomplished by the action of the 

 stomach, aided by the trituration of numerous sharp angular 

 fragments of quartz, which had been instinctively swallowed, 

 and by which the minute division of the shells is most com- 



