BEARDED TIT. 385 
the Pupo 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 decomposition. 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 instinctively swallowed, and by which the minute 
division of the shells is most completely effected.” The 
Bearded Tits, like the Long-tailed Tits, last described, keep 
together in families during autumn and winter; two or 
three families occasionally roving together in a small flock. 
South and west of London, the Bearded Tit has been 
found in Surrey about some ponds near Godalming ; in 
Sussex near Winchelsea; and on the banks of the Thames 
from London upwards as far as Oxford. Pennant says it 
has been taken near Gloucester. In Cornwall, as I learn 
from Mr. Rodd, it is considered very rare ; a single speci- 
men was obtained in the neighbourhood of Helston, which 
is now in the collection made by the late Humphrey Grylls, 
Esq. It is not included in the Catalogue of the Birds of 
Shropshire and North Wales, lately published in the Annals 
of Natural History, by my friend Mr. Thomas Eyton ; 
but is said to have been taken in Lancashire: and a single 
specimen is recorded as Irish by Mr. Thompson, on the 
authority of Mr. W.S. Wall, a bird preserver in Dublin, 
which example was received from the banks of the Shannon. 
Kastward from London the Bearded Tit inhabits the va- 
rious reed beds on the banks of the Thames, both in Kent 
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