of the Bearded Tit. 87 



our way through ditches or narrow twisting channels. 

 We saw Coots' nests in plenty, and one unfinished 

 nest of the Great Crested Grebe the one rare bird 

 which has made some return for the trouble taken of 

 late years for its preservation by becoming more 

 common. A floating mass of weeds, fished up, 

 wringing wet, from the bottom of the water, looks a 

 hopeless nest for a bird to hatch her eggs in ; but, 

 like a damp haystack, it generates very considerable 

 heat. 



" In a Grebe's nest," writes Mr. Southwell in the 

 third volume of " Stevenson's Birds of Norfolk," just 

 published, "in which were three eggs and a newly 

 hatched young one, the thermometer rose to 73, 

 showing that the nest, so far from being the cold and 

 uncomfortable structure by some supposed, was a 

 real hotbed. On inserting the thermometer into a 

 beautifully neat and dry Coot's nest, which the bird 

 had just left, I found the temperature to be 61. 

 The day was wet and cheerless, and the maximum 

 reading of the thermometer in the shade was 58." 



We saw through our glasses several Crested Grebes 

 playing on the Broad. Oddly enough, the common 

 Little Grebe the " Dabchick " is less plentiful in 

 Norfolk than it is in St. James's Park, where last 

 year as many as six pairs, all wild birds, nested and 

 brought off their broods. 



For six or seven pleasant hours we hunted marsh 

 and Broad with eyes and ears open. But not once 

 did we catch sight of a feather, nor once hear the 

 silvery " ping " of the note of the Bearded Tit. 



It was, of course, one corner only of a wide district 

 over the whole of which the bird has been well known 

 that we had explored. There are other Broads and 

 marshes where local circumstances may have 



