BEARDED TIT. 385 



the Pupo muscorum. Of all these mollusca the shell was 

 quite uninjured ; which, when the fragile 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 angular 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 occasionally 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. Eodd, 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, lately 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 va- 

 rious reed beds on the banks of the Thames, both in Kent 



VOL. i. c c 



