Unfortunately there was a light breeze blowing, and the rustling of the reeds 

 prevented me from hearing their note as clearly as I should have liked. 



Although the Bearded Tit usually begins nesting operations in the middle 

 of April, I was fortunate enough to find a nest. The little bird rose from the 

 undergrowth a few feet in front of me, as I was going through some tall reeds. 

 I marked the place where she got up with my handkerchief, but we took 

 nearly a quarter of an hour to find the nest. It was some eight feet from 

 where she rose, under a plant of marsh-marigold, right on the ground. It 

 was entirely built of pieces of dead reed, lined with the finest leaves, 

 and finished off with an inside lining of reed flowers, and contained six 

 perfectly fresh eggs, though the date was the i6th May. I took two 

 photographs of the nest, and withdrew some distance. I could hear the little 

 bird among the sedges, but did not see her till afterwards. She kept uttering 

 a low, grating note, something like the ' chzzz ' of the Whitethroat. 



Two other nests which had been hatched out were placed on clumps of 

 sedge, concealed by broken-down reeds lying over them, and were built of reed 

 leaves and flat grasses, and lined with the flower of the reed. The cavity 

 which contained the eggs was in all cases rather deep, and beautifully rounded, 

 though the material used in the construction must have been most difficult 

 to work with. 



The eggs laid vary in number from four to seven. They can hardly be 

 confused with the eggs of any other British bird. They are white, slightly 

 suffused with a brownish tint, and fantastically spotted and streaked with curious 

 dark-brown markings. When perfectly fresh the dark colour of the yolk 

 shows through the transparent shell, imparting a delicate rosy tinge to the egg. 

 They vary in length from 74 to "65 inch, and in breadth from '60 to -54 

 inch. Young birds are curiously and beautifully marked on the inside of the 

 mouth. 



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