OF THE BEAKDED TIT 169 



or stick-caterpillars, or the wonderful creatures described 

 by Professor Drummond in his Tropical Africa. 



But such is the case. The eggs are laid about the 

 middle or end of April, when the tall reeds, among 

 which the nest is built an inch or two from the ground, 

 are ripe for cutting. 



The prevailing tints of the entire district land, 

 water, and sky are then the cinnamons, straw-colours, 

 and pale blue-greys, miraculously reproduced in the 

 feathers of the bird, which might pass for the emanci- 

 pated spirit of the dead reeds of last summer. The 

 long tail, with its pointed end, hangs down as its owner 

 comes in sight for a moment to look about him, the 

 counterfeit presentment of a faded frond of the stalk 

 he grips, one foot below the other. 



The Hoopoes, as the legend goes, wear their crown of 

 feathers in memory of the day when their ancestors 

 saw King Solomon almost fainting under a sudden 

 burst of noonday sunshine, and sheltered his royal 

 head with a parasol of overlapping wings. 



It may be as a mark of approval of the manliness 

 with which he faces winter on the Broad, when Snipe 

 and other birds have been driven off by the cold, that 

 the Bearded Tit now wears the long silky black 

 moustache his own peculiar adornment which hangs 

 from each side of the beak. 



As in the nobler species, the moustache is noticed 

 only in the males. There is a prolongation of the 

 cheek feathers of the female also, but not the same 

 contrast of colours. 



