328 Habits and Nidification of the Bearded Titmouse. 
doubt not but we should have had from the hand of this 
incomparable artist an exquisite tail-piece or two repr esenting 
the attitude and actions of a frog eating! And I have still 
less doubt, that, had he executed the vignettes with his usual 
truth, spirit, and vivacity, many an inexper ienced person 
would have looked upon them as being rather the burlesque 
and fanciful offspring of his fertile genius conceived”in one of 
its more facetious moods, than as exact and faithful por- 
traitures of nature. 
Yours, &c. 
W. T. Bree. 
Allesley Rectory; December 10. 1829. 
Art. V. Observations on the Habits and Nidification of the Bearded 
Titmouse (Parus biarmicus L.). By J. D. Hoy, Esq. 
Sir, 
I wave a few remarks to offer you on the habits of the 
Bearded Titmouse (Parus bidérmicus), which may be accept- 
able to some of your readers; and I think your correspondent 
on this subject (Vol. IT. p. 222.) will be pleased to hear some- 
thing farther of its history. The borders of the large pieces 
of fresh water in Norfolk called Broads, particularly Hickling 
and Horsey Broads, are the favourite places of resort of this 
bird; indeed it is to be met with in that neighbourhood wher- 
ever there are reeds in any quantity, with fenmy land adjoin- 
ing. During the autumn and winter they are found dispersed, 
generally i in small parties, throughout the whole length of the 
Suffolk coast, wherever there are large tracts of reeds. I 
have found them numerous, in the breeding season, on the 
skirts of Whittlesea, near Huntingdonshire, ‘anid they are not 
uncommon in the fenny district of Lincolnshire; whether 
they are tobe met with farther north I have had no means of 
ascertaining, but they do not appear to have been noticed 
north of the Humber. It begins building in the end of April. 
The nest is composed on the outside with the dead leaves of 
the reed and sedge intermixed with a few pieces of grass, and 
invariably lined with the top of the reed, somewhat in the 
manner of the nest of the Reed Wren (S. arundinacea L.), 
but not so compact in the interior. It is generally placed in 
a tuft of coarse grass or rushes near the ground, on the mar- 
gin of the dikes, in the fen; also sometimes fixed among the 
reeds that are broken down, but never suspended between the 
stems, The eggs vary in number from four to six, rarely 
