'42 BRITISH BIRDS, WITH THEIR NESTS AND EGGS. 



elastic to allow of my calling the present species a Titmouse. I have therefore 

 adopted the alternative name, in preference to the misleading one of " Reed- 

 Pheasant," which is, to my mind, somewhat too suggestive of Hydrophasianns : a 

 bird not strikingly like Panurus. 



Dr. Gadow states that this bird is distributed " all over Europe (except in 

 Sweden, Norway, and Northern Russia), extending into Turkestan." Seebohm says 

 that " it has not been recorded south of the Mediterranean or north of Pomerania." 

 " Finsch obtained it in the swamps of the Kara Irtish, south of Lake Zaisan, 

 on the borders of Chinese Tartary ; and Prjevalsky found it in North-eastern 

 Thibet." 



In Great Britain, the Bearded Reedling has of late years become very rare, 

 owing chiefly to the draining of fens and marshes ; biit also to the greed of dealers, 

 who have stimulated the marsh-men to incessant search after its nest and eggs. 

 Though formerly its range doubtless extended further northward, it is now chiefly 

 confined to the south-eastern and southern counties of England. 



The male Bearded Reedling differs from its hen much as some of the Grass- 

 finches do, in the different colouring of the head and absence of distinct markings 

 on the face : the description given by Mr. Saunders is so clear and concise that I 

 cannot do better than quote it : 



" The adult male has the crown bluish-grey ; a black loral patch descends 

 diagonally from below the eye and terminates in a pointed moustache ; nape, back 

 and rump orange-tawny ; wings longitudinally striped with bufnsh-white, black, and 

 rufous; quills brown with white outer margins; tail mostly rufous; chin and throat 

 greyish-white, turning into greyish-pink on the breast ; flanks orange-tawny ; under 

 tail- coverts jet-black ; beak yellow ; legs and feet black. Length 6.5 in.; wing 2.25 

 in. The female has the head brownish-fawn, and no black on the moustache or 

 under tail-coverts ; in other respects she is merely duller than the male. The 

 young are like the female, but the crown of the head and the middle of the back 

 are streaked with black." 



This species is a bird of the broads, fens, and marshes ; and, to my mind, is 

 a representative in Europe of the large family Ploceida or Weaving- Finches ; at 

 the same time it does not, as might be expected, belong to that family ; 

 but should perhaps be regarded as a link between the latter and the Buntings ; its 

 habits resembling the former, and its nidification the latter group of birds. 



The nest, which I have found once in Kent, and twice on the Ormesby 

 broads, is placed close to the water, upon a mass of half decayed leaf and broken 

 reed-stalk, amongst the growing reed-stems ; it is an open cup-shaped structure, 

 and has a coarse appearance for the nest of so small a bird, the outside walls 



