9 
382 PARIDA. 
there distinguished by the generic term Calamophilus, in 
reference to its decided partiality to live among reeds. The 
habits of the only species known are distinct: it lives mostly 
in marshy places, and builds an open cup-shaped nest, which 
is placed on the ground. The food of this species is seeds, 
insects and their larvee, and small shelled snails. The sides 
of the stomach in this bird are muscular, and much thicken- 
ed, forming a gizzard which the true Tits do not possess. 
This structure of the stomach affords the power of breaking 
down the shells of the testaceous mollusca referred to,— 
namely, Succinea amphibia, and Pupa muscorum, many of 
which have been found comminuted therem. This bird 
differs also from the Tits in some other minor characters. 
From the loose, soft, and almost inaccessible nature of 
the soil at the sides of rivers in which beds of reeds grow, 
and which are the places mostly frequented by the Bearded 
Tit, its habits were formerly but little known; but the 
communications of various observers to the different pe- 
riodicals devoted to Natural History, have lately supplied 
the deficiency. In the month of December, a few years 
since, a contributor to Mr. Loudon’s Magazine, found, after 
a close search, a flock of eight or ten of these beautiful 
little creatures on the wing, in a large piece of reeds below 
Barking Creek, in Essex; ‘‘they were just topping the 
reeds in their flight, and uttering in full chorus their sweetly 
musical note; it may be compared to the music of very 
small cymbals, is clear and ringing, though soft, and cor- 
responds well with the delicacy and beauty of the form and 
colour of the birds. Several flocks were seen during the 
morning. ‘Their flight was short and low, only sufficient to 
clear the reeds, on the seedy tops of which they alight to 
feed, hanging, like most of their tribe, with the head or 
back downwards. If disturbed, they immediately descend 
