494 BRITISH BIRDS. 



is described as a plaintive ee-ar, ee-ar. Both parents were busy in feeding 

 their young with what, as far as we could judge through our binoculars, 

 were small flies. They were not particularly wild or timid, and allowed us 

 to watch them closely as they clung to the swaying reeds ; but if we 

 approached too near they dropped down the stalks of the reeds, and were 

 immediately hidden in the undergrowth of sedge. The nest was built 

 about a foot from the ground, on a clump of sedge (Carex], and was partially 

 concealed by overhanging reeds. It was built of flat grasses, rather deep, 

 and was lined with the flower of the reed. Whether perched upon a reed 

 rocking with the wind, or flitting across the bows of the boat over the 

 channel from one reed-bed to the other with uncertain undulating flight, 

 or passing over the tops of the reeds with what one might almost describe 

 as a dancing motion, this bird is most fascinating, not only to an ornitho- 

 logist, but to the casual observer. It does not look like a common British 

 bird, but has all the charms of a distinguished foreigner : we have birds far 

 more elegant, but none more aristocratic-looking ; we have birds far 

 handsomer, but none more distinffuSs. 



Like other Tits it is a resident in our islands, and flocks in winter in 

 small parties which sometimes wander far from their breeding-grounds in 

 search of food ; and like them, too, it feeds both upon insects and seeds. 



In the ' Zoologist ' for 1875, p. 4693, is a very interesting account (written 

 by my friend Mr. John Young) of the breeding of this bird in confinement : 

 two hens, accompanied by a cock, laid the astonishing number of forty- 

 nine eggs between the 30th of May and the 2nd of August. The usual 

 number of eggs varies from four to seven. They cannot be confused with 

 the eggs of any other British bird. They most closely resemble in some 

 respects the eggs of the Buntings, but always possess peculiar character- 

 istics which readily distinguish them. They are white slightly suffused 

 with brown in ground-colour, similar to the Stock-Dove's, possess consi- 

 derable gloss, and are somewhat sparingly marked with short wavy lines, 

 specks, and streaks of dark brown. Some specimens are a trifle more 

 thickly marked than others ; but otherwise little variation is seen. The 

 eggs are remarkably large for the size of the bird, and vary from '75 to 

 65 inch in length, and from - 6 to '53 inch in breadth. 



The Bearded Tit has the head slate-grey ; the lores, a streak extending 

 halfway over the eye, and a long moustachial patch of pointed feathers 

 are black ; the nape, back, and rump are in British examples rich rufous- 

 brown ; the scapulars are buflfish white ; the lesser wing-coverts are greyish 

 brown tipped with buff; and the greater are black, with broad margins and 

 tips of rufous-brown ; the wings are dark brown, the primaries broadly 

 edged and tipped with white, the secondaries with rich rufous-brown; the 

 tail is rufous-brown like the back, the external feathers tipped with greyish 

 white, which colour forms a margin to the two outermost feathers, which 



