BEARDED TITMOUSE 89 



Bearded Titmouse. 



Panurus biamicus. 



Head bluish grey ; between the bill and eye a tuft of pendent 

 black feathers, prolonged into a pointed moustache ; throat and neck 

 greyish white ; breast and belly white tinged with yellow and pink ; 

 upper parts light orange-brown ; wings variegated with black, white 

 and red ; tail very long, orange-brown, the outer feathers variegated 

 with black and white. Female : the moustache the same colour 

 as the cheek ; the grey on the head absent. Length, six inches and 

 a half. 



This bird, although by name a tit, and placed next to the titmice 

 by many naturalists in their systems, differs widely from those 

 birds in some points. The question of its true position among 

 passerine birds has, indeed, been a subject of controversy for a long 

 time past, and is not yet settled. Some writers would have it that 

 it comes nearest to the shrikes ; others, that it is most closely related 

 to the buntings ; and still others place it next to the waxwing. 

 Leaving aside anatomical subjects, it may be said that the bearded 

 tit is unlike all these different birds and the titmice in habits, lan- 

 guage, colouring, and in its curious feather-ornaments the erectile, 

 pointed, black feathers that grow between the beak and eyes, and 

 form the curious long moustache which gives the bird its name. 



The bearded tit, although at all times an extremely local species, 

 on account of its being exclusively an inhabitant of reed-beds, was once 

 fairly common in many parts of England ; but owing to the draining 

 of marshes and to the persecution of collectors, it has now become 

 one of the rarest of British birds. At present it is confined to the 

 district of the Broads in Norfolk, where it is, unhappily, becoming 

 increasingly rare, and is threatened with extinction at no distant 

 date. 



It is a very pretty bird in its buff and fawn coloured dress ; very 

 elegant in form, its singular black moustache and long, graduated 

 tail enhancing the beauty of its appearance ; and exceedingly grace- 

 ful in its motions. It lives in the beds of reeds growing in the 

 water; and the slim, graceful, clinging bird, and the tall, slender 

 stems, with their pale, pointed leaves and feathery flowers, seem 

 adapted each to the other. In seeking its food it clings to the reeds, 



