THE BEARDED TIT. 419 



ear-covert, and returns under the eye ; and there is another 

 black line margining the produced feathers on the cheek. The 

 feathers on the hind head form a crest, which is partly hoary, 

 but black on the top, and bends forward something in the 

 shape of the Phrygian bonnet. The bird is said to nestle in 

 hollow trees (though these are not common in pine forests) : 

 the eggs are white with reddish spots. 



THE BEARDED TIT Or rather BEARDED ROAD-BIRD (PdTUS 



biarmicus). 



This species differs from the rest of the genus, in its appear- 

 ance and its locality, so much as to make it doubtful if it 

 should in reality be classed with them. It is a marsh bird, 

 and inhabits more deeply and more silently in the reeds than 

 either the reed-warbler or the reed-bunting. It inhabits the 

 marshy zone of country which extends from the great salt- 

 lakes of A sia a considerable way up the valley of the Danube, 

 and again in Holland; in all of which places it is a resident 

 bird, feeding upon insects and mollusca among the reeds in 

 summer, and upon the seeds of the aquatic plants in winter. 

 It has the same command of itself upon a waving perch as 

 the other tits and the buntings ; but it is seldom seen, unless 

 when the reeds are cut down, and then the family, which 

 consists of six or eight besides the parent birds, flit onward 

 before the reed-cutters, not taking high flights, but generally 

 lurking huddled together when the cold weather sets in. It 

 is but recently that these birds have been ascertained to be 

 resident natives, and they have been met with only in the 

 fenny parts of the south-east of England ; nor is it likely that 

 they are to be found in Scotland, unless, perhaps, in the reeds 

 which skirt some parts of the Carse of Gowrie. 



This species is between six and seven inches long, of which 

 the tail occupies fully half, the two middle feathers being 

 longer than the others, and lancet-shaped at the points. The 



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