Tood of the Bearded Titmouse, 23^ 



Art. V. Notice of a Discovery respecting the Food of the Beards 

 Titmouse {Pdrus bidrmicus Lin.). By W. H. Dikes, Esq. 



Sir, 



Considering it to be incumbent on the cultivators of 

 natural history to make public any observation which may 

 tend to the correction of prevailing errors, I take the liberty 

 of communicating, through the medium of your useful pub- 

 lication a discovery, of a trivial nature indeed, but one which 

 appears to have escaped the notice of ornithological writers. 

 I allude to the food of the Bearded Titmouse (Parus biarmi- 

 cus Lin.). This is stated, in all the descriptions which I have 

 consulted, to be the seeds of aquatic plants. Having, how-* 

 ever, lately had an opportunity of examining three specimens, 

 I find that this account is erroneous ; the crop did not contain 

 a single seed, but, on the contrary, was completely filled with 

 the Succinea amphibia in a perfect state, the shell being un- 

 broken. These shells were singularly closely packed together, 

 the crop of one, which was not larger than a hazel nut, con- 

 taining twenty, and some of them of a good size ; it contained 

 also four of the Pupa muscorum. Of all these Mollusca the 

 shell was quite uninjured ; which, when the fragile nature of 

 that of the Succinea is considered, is somewhat extraordinary. 

 The shell appears to be passed into the stomach in the same 

 perfect state, as I discovered one which I presume had been 

 recently swallowed, quite entire. They are not, however, 

 voided in this state, for I found the stomach to be full of 

 small fragments of shell, in a greater or less degree of decom- 

 position. This work of destruction is accomplished by the 

 action of the stomach, aided by the trituration of numerous 

 sharp angular fragments of quartz, which had been instinct- 

 ively swallowed, and by which the minute division of the shells 

 is most completely effected. Wishing you much success in 

 your useful undertaking, I remain. Sir, &c. 



Hull, Jan. 7. 1830. W. H. Dikes. 



Art.^VI. Notice of the Plumage of the Bearded Titmouse when a 

 young Bird. By the Rev. J. Lakes. 



Sir, 

 The interesting remarks on the Bearded Titmouse (Parus 

 bidrmicus) in Vol. IL p. 222. induce me to mention, that, 

 during a visit about three or four years since at Yarmouth in 

 Norfolk, I had an opportunity of seeing the male, female, nest, 

 and young bird in its first year's plumage, of the Bearded Tit- 



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