48 Bolam: The Natural History of Hornsea Mere. 
reeds near the boat-house, probably the produce of a second 
nest, and I had, earlier, seen some adults not far from the 
same place, as well as in the Round House reed-beds, thus 
demonstrating that the unusual collection of twenty-nine— 
however many more the party may have contained—did not 
represent all the tits on the Mere, and with such evidence 
before us the success of Mr. St. Quintin’s introduction scarcely 
requires comment. The birds are now gradually extending 
themselves to all the reedy portions of the Mere, and another 
breeding season will probably find them both numerous and 
well-distributed round it. 
Personally I attach no importance whatever to the doubts 
expressed about their migratory instincts leading them away 
from the Mere, but as denoting a less exclusively reed life 
than one might at first expect of them, it may be mentioned 
that I have seen a few of the tits hunting the bushes and lower 
tree branches in the Boat-house Wood where it borders the 
reeds, and that on 30th April, when walking through the fields 
towards the Mere, I was surprised to meet a male Bearded Tit 
in a low hedgerow quite a hundred yards from- Heslop’s reed- 
bed and dividing a grass field from a fallow one. He mounted 
high into the air, after one or two shorter flights, in a manner 
not unsuggestive of the dancing flight of a pipit, and then 
made straight back to the reeds, ping-pinging as he flew, and 
presenting, as usual, the somewhat ludicrous appearance of a 
bird unduly hampered by its length of tail ! 
The only probable enemy the tits are likely to have on 
the Mere is the Sparrow-Hawks which occasionally haunt it, 
and to these they would probably fall an easy prey, but these 
may safely be left to John Taylor to look after. 
BLUE Tits and GREAT Tits both common; various nests 
seen. 
Coat Tit.—None were seen until 15th May, when one was 
observed gathering fur for its nest from the dead stoats and 
rats in the ‘ gamekeeper’s museum ’ near the boat-house. No 
doubt it nested thereabouts, for one or two fledged broods 
were noticed about Wassand later. As already mentioned, a 
nest in an uprooted beech tree on the borders of Low Wood 
was fledged on 12th June. . 
Marsu Tit.—Never seen, nor did Taylor know it. 
LoNG-TAILED Tit.—Taylor has usually known a nest in 
Boat-house Wood every year, and sometimes one elsewhere, 
but none this year anywhere on the estate, and I did not see 
a single bird. 
WREN.—Common. A nest—as usual—in the boat-house, 
fledged early in June, and a second nest was built, and the 
bird was sitting in it, when I left on’ 20th July; several other 
nests elsewhere. 
Naturalist, 
