THE BEARDED TITMOUSE. 363 



the law is upheld. Happily there is a desire on all hands to 

 do this, and one gentleman even negotiated for the purchase of 

 an estate, it was said, for the sole purpose of protecting the 

 Bearded Tits. 



The following is an approximate estimate of their decrease 

 in Norfolk in six decennial periods since 1838, but the earlier 

 figures given are little more than a guess : — 



1838 



1848 



1858 



1868 



1878 



1888 



1898 



200 



170 



140 



125 



90 



45 



33 



Number of Nests 



The number of broads on which they now nest is about eleven 

 large, and ten small ones, not including Wroxham Broad, where 

 boating has banished them, though the Grebes remain. 



One cause of their decrease is that the celebrated broads are 

 gradually, but it is to be feared surely, growing up, though there 

 is another more potent reason. For years, prior to 1895, there 

 was a systematic trade in their eggs, and every egg dealer and 

 moth hunter helped himself. Such devastation was criminal, but 

 happily it is stopped now. 



Both birds and eggs are protected by law, and the remnant 

 are already feeling benefit from the protection afforded by this 

 salutary measure, which came into force on May 1st, 1895. 

 The broads where the Bearded Tits have had the best chance of 

 escaping persecution are the small private ones, and those places 

 where the proprietors have allowed the reeds to grow instead of 

 cutting them, thereby providing high cover, which is an asylum 

 where many a nest may escape the keenest eye. Unfortunately 

 for the birds, it is rather an easy nest to find, for a pair will 

 choose one particular bed of reeds year after year rather than 

 move away. 



Since the drainage of Salthouse sea-broad in 1851, the 

 Bearded Tit has ceased to breed there, but the reed beds in 

 Cley, adjoining, are still large enough to attract occasional 

 migrants. It is very likely that the examples met with by 

 Dr. Power and others in 1895, and on several previous occasions 

 near Cley sluice, and at Morston and Burnham further west, had 

 crossed the German Ocean, as also those seen in a pond at 

 Holt in September, 1898, and May, 1899. In December, 1899, 

 four were seen at Wiveton, still further north, where they 

 remained a month. 



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