32 THE BIRDS or' DEVOX. 



Family PANURID^. 

 Bearded Titmouse, Famirus Uarmicus (Linn.). 



A casual visitor of very rare occurrence at the present day, but appears 

 to have been a resident about fifty or sixtj- years ago. Breeds ? 



"We have only once had the pleasure of seeing the Bearded Tit in Xorth 

 Devon, and this was one autumn day when we were stalking Duck in a 

 marsh near Barnstaple, and being overtaken by a storm of sleet, were 

 sheltering behind a tall sedgy hedge, when, hearing a gentle twitter 

 which was new to us close behind our bead, we turned round and saw a 

 small company of these little birds within a few inches climbing up the 

 stalks of the sedges in the centre of the hedge. Having only large duck- 

 shot with us, we did not attempt to secure a specimen. (M. A. M.) 



The late Mr. Bower Scott, of Chudleigb, informed us, in 1882, that 

 about ten years previously he had seen a specimen of this species at 

 Slapton Ley. Mr. Howard Saunders, in his ' Manual of British Birds,' 

 p. 91, says, "it breeds in one locality, which need not be revealed to the 

 exterminator, in Devonshire." 



Each year, with the advance of drainage, and the consequent curtail- 

 ment of swamps and reedy ground, the resorts of the Bearded Tit become 

 fewer, and many localities where it used to be not uncommon now know it 

 no more. To this cause for its disappearance we regret to add another — the 

 insensate greed of collectors for " British " specimens of this pretty little 

 bird and its eggs. 



In many of its habits, in the form of its nest, and in the colour of its 

 eggs, which are mini;tely streaked with dark reddish brown on a white 

 ground, the Bearded Tit would seem to come much nearer the Buntings 

 than the true Tits, and " Bearded Beedling" would seem the better name 

 for it. On the Norfolk Broads, apparently its last stronghold in England, 

 it is well known by the name of " lleed-Pheasant." 



Dr. Edward Moore observes that it is "rare; I am informed by Mr. Comyns that 

 the Bearded Titmouse is to be found in the willow-beds opposite Topsham, on the 

 Exe river, — a specimen in the collection of C. Tripe, Esq., of Devonport" (Trans. Plyni. 

 Inst. 1830, p. 310). Again, in his paper "On the Pas.serine Birds of Devonshire" 

 (Mag, Nat. Hist. 1837, p. 176), he says, "rare; found on the Exe near Thorverton ; 

 and also near Topsham, as I am informed by Mr. Comyns, of Mt. Pleasant, near 

 Dawlisli, who lias specimens;" and in Rowe's ' Perambulation of Dartmoor,' p. 23.'!. 

 he writes, "specimens at Mr. Tripe's, Mr. Comyns's, and four at Rev. Kerr Vaughan's." 

 According to Bellamy it was " found only in one or two spots near Exeter," and it had 

 been noticed only near Thorverton and Dawlish (Xat. Hist. S. Devon, 1839, pj). 208, 307). 

 It is certainly no longer found near Topsbam. It was occasionally met with in the 

 neighbourhood of Bovey Heathfield (T. & K., 1830). There were two specimens in the 

 collection of the late Mr. Cecil Smith stated to have come Irom " Devonshire." 



This bird has occurred as a rare straggler in Cornwall and Dorset, but 

 seems unknown in Somersetshire. 



