410 



nature of that of the Succinea is considered, is somewhat 

 extraordinary. The shell appears to be passed into the 

 stomach in the same perfect state, as I discovered one 

 which I presume had been recently swallowed, quite 

 entire. They are not, however, voided in this state, for 

 I found the stomach to be full of small fragments of 

 shell, in a greater or less degree of decomposition. This 

 work of destruction is accomplished by the action of the 

 stomach, aided by the trituration of numerous sharp an- 

 gular fragments of quartz, which had been instinctively 

 swallowed, and by which the minute division of the shells 

 is most completely effected." The Bearded Tits, like the 

 Long-tailed Tits last described, keep together in families 

 during autumn and winter ; two or three families occasion- 

 ally roving together in a small flock. 



South and west of London, the Bearded Tit has been 

 found in Surrey about some ponds near Godalming; in 

 Sussex near "Winchelsea ; and on the banks of the Thames 

 from London upwards as far as Oxford. Pennant says it 

 has been taken near Gloucester. In Cornwall, as I learn 

 from Mr. Rodd, it is considered very rare ; a single speci- 

 men was obtained in the neighbourhood of Helston, which 

 is now in the collection made by the late Humphrey 

 Grylls, Esq. It is not included in the Catalogue of the 

 Birds of Shropshire and North Wales, published in the 

 Annals of Natural History, by my friend Mr. Thomas 

 Eyton ; but is said to have been taken in Lancashire : and 

 a single specimen is recorded as Irish by Mr. Thompson, 

 on the authority of Mr. W. S. Wall, a bird-preserver in 

 Dublin, which example was received from the banks of 

 the Shannon. 



Eastward from London the Bearded Tit inhabits the 

 various reed beds on the banks of the Thames, both in 

 Kent and Essex. It is found also in Cambridgeshire, Suf- 



