THE SINGING BIRDS. 305 



about nine inches long. The plumage of the female is paler; the back is of a light shade, darkly 

 spotted ; the lower tail-covers are pale rust-red, and the very slightly indicated beard white. The 

 young are almost black upon the back. The length of this species is from six inches to six and a 

 half, and its breadth from seven inches to seven and a half; the wing measures two inches and a half, 

 and the tail three inches and a quarter. 



The Bearded Titmouse is met with in all the north-eastern parts of Europe. In Great Britain 

 it is but rarely seen ; it is, however, comparatively numerous in Holland, South Hungary, Greece, 

 and a portion of Asia Minor. Everywhere it seeks the reed-covered banks of rivers, and lives in 

 pairs or in small families. 



Dr. Leach was induced to separate this very interesting bird from the genus Parus in con- 

 sequence of its differing in several minor characters from the other species of that genus, particularly 

 in the situation it affects as a place of abode and nidification, constructing a nest on or near the 

 ground in wet and marshy places. " Its food," continues Mr. Gould, " is also very different, 

 consisting of the seeds of reeds, with aquatic insects and minute-shelled snails, for the trituration of 

 which it. is provided with a strong muscular gizzard. It is more particularly abundant in the low and 

 marshy districts of Holland, France, and Germany. Its disposition is timid, and its manners shy and 

 retired, dwelling in situations both local and difficult of access, a circumstance which, until lately, has 

 prevented naturalists from giving any details, especially of its peculiar habits." We are indebted to 

 Mr. Hoy for the best account of this bird yet published, as given in the " Magazine of Natural 

 History," (Vol. III., page 328), from which the following is extracted : — 



" The borders," says Mr. Hoy, " of the large pieces of water in Norfolk, called ' broads,' 

 particularly Hickling and Horsey Broads, are the favourite places of resort of these birds ; indeed, 

 it is met with in that neighbourhood wherever there are reeds in any quantity, with fenny land 

 adjoining. During the autumn and winter they are found dispersed generally 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, and 

 they are not uncommon in the fenny districts of Lincolnshire ; whether they are to be met with 

 further north I have no means of ascertaining, but they do not appear to have been noticed north of 

 the Humber. They begin building in the end of April. The nest is composed on the outside of 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. arundinaced), but not so 

 compact in the interior. It is generally placed in a tuft of coarse grass or rushes, near the ground, on 

 the margin of the dykes in the fen ; 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 seven ; they 

 are pure white, sprinkled all over with small purplish red spots, intermixed with a few small faint lines 

 and markings of the same colour — size about the same as that of the Greater Tit. but much more 

 rounded and shorter. Their food during winter is principally the seed of the reeds, and so intent are 

 they in searching for it, that I have taken them with a bird-lime twig attached to the end of a 

 fishing-rod. When alarmed by any sudden noise, or the passing of a hawk, they utter their shrill 

 musical notes, and conceal themselves among the thick bottom of the reeds, but soon resume their 

 station, climbing the upright stems with the greatest facility. Their manners in feeding approach 

 near to those of the Long-tailed Tit ; they often hang with the head downwards, and occasionally 

 assume the most beautiful attitudes. Their food is not entirely reed-seed, for they sometimes eat 

 insects and their larvae, and the very young shelled snails of different kinds, which are numerous in 

 the bottom of the reedlings. I have been enabled to watch their motions whilst in search of insects, 

 having, when there is a little wind stirring, been often within a few feet of them, quite unnoticed 

 \ol. 11. — 78 



