A HISTORY OF LEICESTERSHIRE 



A specimen, said to have been shot near Syston or 

 Queniborough about 1880, is now in the museum. 

 The keeper of Thornton Reservoir told me in 1885 

 that he had procured specimens there more than 

 once during the past few years. 



28. Bearded Reedling or Bearded Tit. Panurus 



blarmlcus (Linn.). 

 Locally, Reed-pheasant. 



Said to have formerly occurred, but not recorded for 

 many years. Those noted are the following : In 

 October, 1885, I purchased from Elkington a pair 

 of these birds, which he assured me were shot by 

 T. Freer, some ten or twelve years before, at the ' back- 

 water,' Bede House Meadows, Leicester; and on 3 Dec., 

 1885, 1 succeeded in finding Freer, then a very old man, 

 living in a house next the 'Black Horse' atAylestone, 

 and he remembered the circumstance perfectly, telling 

 me that there were six or seven birds in the flock, to 

 which he was attracted by their peculiar note a piping 

 warble and that he shot three, one of them very 

 badly. This was on 10 Nov., 1870, and he had 

 never seen others before nor since. Of the three birds 

 shot two were males and one female. One male went 

 to the museum and the pair to Elkington. Mr. H. A. 

 Payne of Enville gave me a note of the occurrence of 

 this bird at Groby Pool in July, 1883. He informed 

 me there were about a dozen of them running up the 

 reeds and popping in and out the rushes. Many 

 observers, however, who see the long-tailed tit climbing 

 about reeds, mistake it for the bearded tit. 



29. British Long-Tailed Tit. Acredula rosea (Blyth). 

 Locally, Bottle-jug, Bottle-tit, Mumruffin. 



Resident, but sparingly distributed. Harley wrote : 

 ' Pretty plentiful in thickly-wooded tracts, as, for 

 example, the vicinity of Newtown Linford, Groby, 

 and Anstey.' I have seen it at Whetstone of late 

 years, and it has been seen by Messrs. Stuart Maples 

 and Peter W. Druce, as lately as October, 1906, at 

 Aylestone Mill, whilst Mr. G. Frisby has found its 

 nest in a furze-bush at Quorn, on 16 April, 1906. 



30. Great Tit. Parus major, Linn. 



Locally, Blackcap (by error), Ox-eye Tit, Saw- 

 sharpener (in allusion to its note), Tom Tit. 

 Resident and generally distributed. In June, 1883, 

 I found in an apple tree at Aylestone Hall a nest of 

 this species close to one of the blue tit, both con- 

 taining young. It is well known what singular situa- 

 tions this bird and the blue tit will sometimes choose 

 for nesting, but never, perhaps, was a more extra- 

 ordinary spot selected than in the summer of 1887, 

 when a pair of these birds built their nest in an iron 

 post common to the gates of the front garden of two 

 houses on the Aylestone Road, Leicester, close to the 

 Lansdowne Road, and in an extremely exposed posi- 

 tion, not more than 2 ft. from the ground, abutting 

 on the causeway, and only, of course, a few yards from 

 the tram-lines, of a very public road. They apparently 

 brought off their brood safely, but so quick and secret 

 were these birds, that the people living in one of the 

 two houses with their children had no idea of their 

 existence. 



31. British Coal Tit. Parus britannicus (Sharpe and 

 Dresser). 



Resident, generally distributed, and commoner of 



122 



late years than the following species, from which it 

 may be readily distinguished by its possession of two 

 white alar bars and a whitish nape. According to 

 Harley, this species builds in hollow and decayed 

 timber-trees, and in crevices in old walls and buildings. 

 Mr. W. J. Horn, writing in 1 907, says : ' I found a 

 nest in a hole by the roadside in the town of Market 

 Harborough, and last year this bird nested in a hole 

 in an apple tree in my orchard. About 1906 I found 

 a nest (with eggs) in a mole-run in Burbage Woods ; 

 this I presented to the Leicester Museum. A pair 

 come every day, with great and blue tits, to my bird 

 table.' Mr. G. Frisby of Quorn found a nest with 

 eggs on 2 April, 1906. 



32. Marsh-Tit. Parus palustris, Linn. 



Resident, but sparingly distributed. Harley re- 

 marked that it is partial to the willow and alder, in the 

 decayed boles and branches of which it nests, and that 

 it also affects the Scotch fir and other coniferous trees 

 when decayed. Two, sent from Belvoir by Mr. Ingram, 

 were shot on 14 Jan., 1886, one of which (a female) 

 is now in the museum. Mr. Davenport wrote in 

 December, 1887: 'This bird nested at Keythorpe 

 in the summer of 1886 ; the eggs were taken, and 

 the old bird, I grieve to say, killed. The only other 

 instance of its nesting in the county coming under my 

 notice was three or four years back, when I found the 

 nest in a hole in a rotten branch of a tree in Skeffing- 

 ton Wood. The bird was then building, and went 

 on with its occupation entirely regardless of me. 

 Seven eggs were eventually laid.' 



Mr. W. J. Horn writes in 1907 : ' I see this bird 

 from time to time near my house (but it has never 

 come to the bird table), and I have also found its nest 

 in the park, Market Harborough. Its favourite nest- 

 ing site is a hole in an ash " stub " in a wood. In 

 such a position I found one on 3 May, 1806, near 

 Hinckley.' 



33. Blue Tit. Parus caerukus, Linn. 

 Locally, Bluecap, Tom Tit. 



Resident and common. Regarding its nesting, 

 Dr. C. J. Bond wrote on 27 June, 1887: 'Walking 

 down Regent's Road yesterday, I saw a blue tit (torn 

 tit) perch on a lamp-post with a caterpillar in its beak 

 and then disappear inside the post, at the top, where 

 the gas-pipe comes out of the hollow iron post ; when 

 I distinctly heard the young birds close to the top. 

 I should hardly have thought the bird would have 

 had the hardihood to build within a few inches of a 

 flaring gas-jet and daily visited by the lamplighter 

 with his torch ; they must have had perpetual day.' 



A nest containing six eggs was obtained from Croft. 

 It was built around the broken neck of a bottle, which 

 had been dropped into a post-hole at the top of a 

 stone pillar ; when found all the eggs but one had 

 fallen to the bottom of the bottle. 



34. Nuthatch. Sitta caesia, Wolf. 

 Locally, Nut-jobber. 



Resident and sparingly distributed in wooded dis- 

 tricts. According to Harley it has occurred at Bos- 

 worth, Bradgate, Croxton, Donington, and Garendon. ' 

 I have found it so near to Leicester as at Knighton, 

 and at Kibworth and Wistow it is fairly common. 



Mrs. Perry Herrick writing about Beaumanor on 

 9 April, 1889, says: ' They constantly take nuts from 



