The Bearded Reedling 



up the soft ooze with a peculiar backward motion of both 

 feet and then eagerly scan the spot to see if his labours 

 have met their reward. Early in April he pairs, and a 

 nest of leaves and rushes, deeply cup-shaped and lined with 

 the feathery tops of the reeds, is built. Materials are 

 collected by both sexes, but especially by the cock, while 

 the building itself is entirely carried on by the hen. A 

 clutch of six eggs is laid ; they are very round in shape and 

 dead white, freckled with minute black markings. Two 

 broods are reared in the season, the young being fed chiefly 

 on insects. It is essentially a resident species and spends 

 the whole year wandering over the reed-beds in family 

 parties, feeding on insects, molluscs, or seeds, the party 

 keeping together by a continual use of the call-note. At 

 nightfall they all gather close together on some broken 

 reed, where they sleep securely till dawn awakens them to 

 another day of restless work and energy. 



The general colour above is tawny orange, the secondaries 

 are striped with rufous buff and black, the tail is long, 

 wedge-shaped, and of the same colour as the back. Chin 

 and throat whitish, becoming pinker on the breast and 

 passing into tawny brown on the flanks ; under- tail coverts 

 black. The male has the crown of the head a delicate grey 

 and a black moustache of elongated feathers running down- 

 wards from the lores and beneath the eye. In the females 

 this moustache is wanting and the crown of the head is 

 brown, but otherwise they resemble the male. The young 

 differ from the female in having the crown and back striped 

 with black. Length 6'75 in,; wing 2*25 in. 



73 



