6 
Hickling and Horsey Broads, are the favourite places of resort of this bird; indeed it is to be 
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, 
through 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 had no means of ascertaining; but they do not appear to have been 
noticed north of the Humber. It begins 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. arundinacea, L.), 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 dikes in the fen, also 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, 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 those of the Greater Titmouse, but much more rounded at the smaller end. Their food 
during the winter is principally the seed of the reed; and so intent are they in searching for it, 
that I have taken them with a birdlime 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 
(which your correspondent has well described), 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 the Long-tailed Titmouse, often hanging with the 
head downwards, and turning themselves into the most beautiful attitudes. Their food is not 
entirely the reed-seed, but insects and their larve, and the very young shell-snails of different 
kinds which are numerous at the bottom of the reedlings. I have been enabled to watch their 
motions when in search of insects, having, when there has been a little wind stirring, been often 
within a few feet of them quite unnoticed among the thick reeds. Were it not for their note 
betraying them, they would be but seldom seen. The young, until the autumnal moult, vary in 
plumage from the old birds; a stripe of blackish feathers extends from the hind part of the neck 
to the rump. Your correspondent has been informed that the males and females keep separate 
during the winter; but I have always observed them in company ; they appear to keep in families 
until the pairing-time, in the manner of the Long-tailed Titmouse, differing in this respect, that 
you will occasionally find them congregated in large flocks, more particularly during the month 
of October, when they are migrating from their breeding-places.” Mr. Stevenson has kindly 
drawn our attention to a letter addressed by Mr. Hoy to Mr. Selby in the year 1828, in which 
he speaks of this bird as abundant in reed-beds in Norfolk, and states that he saw many about 
Whittlesea Mere in 1826. 
Mr. H. Stevenson, in the ‘ Birds of Norfolk,’ says :— 
‘A long and intimate acquaintance with this species in our eastern fens enables me to add 
but little to the admirable description of its habits by the late Mr. Hoy (Mag. Nat. History, 
vol. iii. p. 328), as quoted by Yarrell, Gould, and other authors; but I cannot agree with Mr. Hoy 
in considering ‘the end of April’ as the usual time for these birds to commence building. I have 
