64 BRITISH BIRDS’ EGGS. 
Famity PANURIDE-. 
BEARDED REEDLING (or TIT). 
Panurus Brarmicus, Linn. 
PI. X., fig. 26. 
Geogr. distr.—Throughout Europe, in nearly all suitable localities ; 
local in Great Britain, but resident. 
Food.—Seeds of reeds, insects, small snails. 
Nest.—Open and cup-shaped; formed of dead leaves of sedges, 
reeds, and grasses, interwoven with cobweb, and lined with the top 
of the reed. 
Position of nest.—Near the gruund, in tufts of coarse grass or 
rushes growing in the fens, on the margins of dikes, amongst broken- 
down reeds, or on the edge of a mass of water-plants. 
Number of eggs.—5-T. 
Time of nidification.—IV-V ; end of April or May. 
The Bearded Tit is seldom found far from the dense 
reedy fens and water which it loves; formerly it was not 
uncommon on the Norfolk Broads; but now it is much 
rarer, though still occasionally found. In the spring of 
1885 I noticed one or two unfinished nests, evidently of 
this species, amongst the reeds on the Ormesby Broads, 
but, unfortunately, I was too early to obtain the eggs. I 
have also seen a nest, but without eggs, at Kemsley, on 
the Kentish Coast. The latter was placed upon a small 
island of partly decayed reeds (trodden down by Moorhens 
and Ducks) near the centre of a large pond. It is there- 
fore clear that the county of Kent is not yet wholly deserted 
as a breeding-place by this species, though Hickling and 
Horsey Broads in Norfolk are still probably its favourite 
resort. 
Like the True Tits, the Bearded Reedling is addicted to 
gymnastic exercises, often hanging head downwards to 
feed, and running up and down the reed stems with ease; 
upon the ground, however, its mode of progression is 
awkward, the head being lowered, and the action of the 
bird a waddle rather than a walk. 
