Bearded Tits at Hornsea. 349 
Willow Grouse. We fancy, however, we can see why the 
editors rise in righteous indignation against Mr. St. Quintin’s 
harmless experiment. They state “in a number of occurrences 
reported from time to time in our [British Birds] pages, it has 
been impossible to say if the bird referred to was a genuine 
migrant, or an escape from captivity, and this doubt as to a 
vagrant being a genuine wild bird or not, increases as more 
people keep birds in semi-captivity, without even a ring on 
their legs, or let them loose intentionally.’ Exactly, but why 
should the poor beggars be ringed or clipped or marked in any 
way ?. Surely if, in the near future, a Bearded Tit is recorded 
anywhere in the neighbourhood, or even out of it, the proba- 
bility will be that it is one of the Hornsea specimens. And if. 
not, what matter? The Bearded Tit 7s a British breeding 
bird, and will therefore not be likely to appear in the pages of 
British Birds as still another ‘ New British Bird.’ We quite 
agree with our contemporary that several records have ap- 
peared in its pages which ‘it has been impossible to say if the 
bird referred to was a genuine migrant or an escape from 
captivity.” That has been our opinion too, though we do not 
remember having seen this stated when the record was made. 
It has usually been a ‘ new British bird,’ seen in the flesh some- 
where in Kent or Sussex, or thereabouts. We are relieved to 
learn now that the editors at last share the opinion of so many of 
their readers and throw dowbt upon the records. 
In any case, is this recording ‘ new’ occurrences advancing 
science even as much as introducing the Bearded Tit at Horn- 
sea, where its habits can now be watched? Personally we 
consider that the mere swelling of the present long list of 
British birds by records of single individua!s that have either 
fallen or been pushed in Kent, or thereabouts, is not ‘ science ’ 
any more than is the addition of a new button or postage stamp 
to a collection of those trifles. 
Our London friends can be assured that Yorkshire orni- 
thologists are as enthusiastic, careful, and as ‘scientific’ as 
any in the country, as a perusal of the pages of ° The Naturalist ’ 
and ‘ The Birds of Yorkshire’ will shew. And in introducing 
the Bearded Tit at Hornsea Mere, they are not likely to ‘ inter- 
fere with nature, anything lke so much as when London 
ornithologists pay hurried collecting, or, as they would say, 
‘ observing ’, visits to our county. 
In any case, Mr. St. Quintin’s experiment seems quite as 
scientifically valuable as is the action of a ‘ naturalist ’’ who 
hauled from its home the first young Bittern known on the 
Broads for many, many years, tucked it under her arms, carried 
it off, and imprisoned it for the night in order to exhibit it 
before ‘ witnesses,’ and to photograph it. Yet this question- 
able “ scientific ’ action is unblushingly described in the leading 
Igt1t Oct. 1. 
