362 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



noise they drop down among the reeds, but soon resume their 

 station again, climbing up the reed-stems with the greatest 

 facility." 



Though now slightly recovering its numbers, the Bearded 

 Tit has become very scarce in Norfolk, and almost extinct in 

 Suffolk. Self-interested marshmen and egg-collectors would like 

 strangers to believe that this scarcity is owing to hard winters ; 

 but their own cupidity is one cause of the decrease, for the 

 truth is, that Bearded Tits are not nearly so delicate as their 

 frail appearance would seem to imply ; indeed, Mr. E. T. Booth 

 used to call them remarkably hardy, and in his * Catalogue ' says 

 that they seem able to contend against severe weather with greater 

 success than many much larger and apparently stronger birds. 

 This I quite believe to be the case, for they are not tender in 

 confinement. 



Having asked the Rev. M. C. Bird, who lives among the 

 broads, to keep notes as to their presence or absence, he being 

 constantly on the spot, I received the following memoranda last 

 spring : — 



March 14th, 1899. — Four pairs seen. 

 April 14th. — A nest at Potter Heigham. 

 April 17th. — Three nests, with four, four, and five eggs 

 respectively ; two more nests, and a sixth taken. 

 April 25th. — Three nests found. 



April 28th. — Additional nest with young a few days old. 

 May 1st. — Another nest. 



May 6th. — The nest found on the 1st has eight eggs ; another 

 nest found to-day. 



May 19th. — A nest with young flown. 



With Mr. Bird's assistance I have compiled an estimate of the 

 number of nests hatched off in 1898 on every broad in Norfolk 

 where there is reason to think that there are any. This only 

 gives a total for them all of thirty-three nests, as tabulated in the 

 Trans. Norf. and Nor. Nat. Soc. (vi. p. 430), but the number may 

 be slightly more. It is unnecessary to recapitulate the list, which 

 has only a local interest, but we may assess the number of adult 

 Bearded Tits in April, 1899, on Norfolk Broads, as certainly one 

 hundred ; but there were not more than seven nests on any one 

 broad, and it will be a diminishing quantity unless the arm of 



