366 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



August have known the female sitting on eggs " (' Rough Notes,' 

 vol. i. p. 83). On one occasion I found some young as big as 

 their parents in the middle of June, and on the same day an 

 incomplete clutch of fresh eggs, which would indicate that they 

 sometimes breed three times in a season, the first clutch of eggs 

 being therefore hatched in April. Besides this, the number of 

 eggs laid by Mr. Young's tame birds, to be mentioned presently, 

 confirms me in thinking that they breed three, possibly even 

 four times, in a very favourable season. 



After the breeding season the young form themselves into 

 family parties, but it is certainly not the case that the males and 

 females keep distinct (c/. Mag. N. H., 1829, p. 224), and such a 

 flock as fifty together ('Birds of Norfolk,' i. p. 151) is not to be 

 heard of now in England. 



Continental authors give all sorts of sites for the nest, such 

 as a hut built for duck shooting, but in Norfolk it is placed 

 among reeds (never in nettles, very exceptionally in rushy 

 grass), and is said to take eight days in construction. It is 

 generally a foot above the ground, if a swamp can be called 

 ground, and never, to the best of my belief, suspended. The 

 tallest and stoutest reeds in the reed-bed are its customary 

 support, reeds eight feet high, sometimes quite sere, while 

 exceptionally a nest is hid in a dwarf Alder or cluster of Sweet 

 Gale (Bog Myrtle), a shrub with that aromatic odour which 

 prevails on a dry marsh in June, the Cuckoo's favourite perch. 

 Here it may be remarked that, common as the Cuckoo is round 

 most of our broads, there is no record of its egg being deposited 

 in the nest of the Bearded Tit, which is very singular. 



The nests " are extremely liable to be submerged if the tides 

 rise suddenly, either from a heavy fall of rain or a flow of salt 

 water up the river. In such cases the birds at once commence 

 a second nest on the top of their first edifice " (Booth, I.e.), I 

 have not personally heard of any nests being submerged, but 

 Booth was always an accurate observer, and can be trusted. 



The nest is about 2*8 inches inside diameter, and is usually 

 composed of the brown blades of the common Arundo, and lined 

 with their feathery tops. A typical nest with its surroundings 

 is reproduced in the Norf. and Nor. Nat. Tr. (vi. p. 434), from a 

 photograph by Mr. R. B. Lodge, who writes : — " Within fifty yards 



