B/KDS. 85 



the fishermen tried to disengage it, some of its 

 claws came off. ^ 



Whilst spending a week 

 end on the Norfolk Broads 

 last spring we made a 

 great effort to secure 

 a photograph of a 

 bearded tit, or reed 

 pheasant, feeding 

 its young, but 

 unfortunately 

 for us, we 



failed to 



l^^^mr 



find a 



single nest 

 with a 

 brood still re- 

 maining in it. 

 I did, however, 

 discover from a house- 

 top a pair of adult 

 birds entering and leaving 

 a particular reed-bed with 

 suspicious regularity, and got 

 our boatman to punt us round 

 to the place. When we reached 

 it we found three very juvenile tits 

 SWIFT hopping about amongst the reeds. I 



dashed out of the boat after them on to 

 a little floating island of tangled aquatic vegetation, 



