152 ALLEN'S NATURALIST'S LIBRARY. 



brown like the back the lores and moustache are ashy-white, 

 and there is none of the black which distinguishes the male ; 

 the under tail-coverts are cinnamon-buff, like the flanks. 

 Total length, 5-8 inches ;. wing, 2 '35. 



Young. Resemble the female in not having any black mous- 

 tache, but they differ in being more tawny buff, with the middle 

 of the back black, and a black stripe on either side of the 

 crown. Even after the first moult, young birds retain a good 

 deal of black striping on the head and back, and even full- 

 plumaged adult males, with grey head and black moustache, 

 sometimes show some traces of black on the back. 



Range in Great Britain. Said to be found at the present time 

 only in two counties of England, viz., Devonshire and Norfolk. 

 The destruction of many of its reedy haunts by the drainage of 

 the fens has doubtless been the prime cause of the decreasing 

 numbers of this species, which used to breed in Sussex, Kent, 

 Essex, and the fen-lands of Cambridgeshire, Huntingdonshire, 

 and Lincolnshire. On the Broads of Norfolk (and possibly 

 of Suffolk), the Bearded Reedling still occurs, but in diminishing 

 numbers. 



Range outside the British Islands. Extends, in suitable localities, 

 from France and Spain, eastwards as far as North-eastern Thibet, 

 frequenting marshes and swamps, and, as mentioned above, 

 becoming gradually paler towards the eastern portions of its 

 range. It does not extend north of Pomerania in Europe, nor 

 does it cross the Mediterranean. To its Dutch and German 

 habitats it is a summer visitor, differing in this respect from our 

 British bird, which is resident, and does not seem to migrate 

 at all. 



Habits. It is now very difficult to observe the habits of the 

 Bearded Reedling in this country, as it is only in certain 

 favoured localities in Norfolk, where the bird is protected, that 

 there is any likelihood of meeting with it in a state of nature. 

 It is now almost equally rare in many parts of Holland, in 

 which, not long ago, it could have been seen in numbers. 

 The primary cause of the disappearance of the species is the 

 same in both instances, viz., the draining and reclaiming of the 

 fens and meres ; but it must also sadly be confessed that in 

 England the unrestrained zeal of the collector and private 



