92 BEARDED TITMOUSE, 



Russia — especially in the marshes of the Black and Caspian 

 Seas — Turkestan, Yarkand and Southern Siberia : the coloration 

 of specimens becoming gradually paler from England eastward to 

 Central Asia. The bird has also been observed in Albania, Greece 

 and Asia Minor. 



On the Norfolk Broads the ' Reed Pheasant,' as it is called, often 

 begins to lay early in April ; the nest being placed near the water, 

 in sedge, crushed-down reeds, or aquatic plants — never suspended 

 from the stems — and composed of flat grasses, sedges, and dead 

 flags, with a lining of the flower of the reed. The eggs, 5-7, are 

 shining cream-white, sparingly streaked with short wavy lines of 

 reddish-brown : average measurements -7 by '55 in. Sometimes 

 two hens occupy the same nest, each laying an egg daily until a 

 total of 10 is reached. Two broods are produced in the season, 

 fresh eggs being obtainable up to the early part of August. The 

 note is a clear, ringing piiig^ ping ; and when the nest is approached 

 a plaintive ee-ar, ee-ar is uttered. Even in the winter the birds are 

 lively and musical, and at that season they may be seen in flocks of 

 forty or fifty together ; often roving from the frozen inland waters to 

 those which are kept open owing to the influence of the tide. The 

 food consists largely of the seed of the reed in winter ; but in summer 

 the crops of some individuals have been found closely packed with 

 such small shell-bearing molluscs as Succinea amphibia. In its diges- 

 tive organs and other points of internal structure this bird shows 

 no real affinity to the Tits ; and some writers have advocated its 

 relationship to the Finches ; it is, however, as Professor Newton 

 remarks, a perfectly distinct form, with no very near relations, and 

 entitled to be regarded as the representative of a separate family, 

 the Panurida. 



The adult male has the crown bluish-grey ; a black loral patch 

 descends diagonally from below the eye and terminates in a pointed 

 moustache ; nape, back and rump orange-tawny ; wings longitu- 

 dinally striped with buffish-white, black and rufous ; quills brown 

 with white outer margins ; tail mostly rufous ; chin and throat 

 greyish-white turning into greyish-pink on the breast ; flanks orange- 

 tawny ; under tail-coverts jet black ; bill yellow ; legs and feet 

 black. Length 6*5 in. ; wing 2-25 in. The female has the head 

 brownish-fawn, and no black on the moustache or under tail- 

 coverts ; in other respects she is merely duller than the male. The 

 young are like the female, but the crown of the head and the middle 

 of the back are streaked with black. 



