THE BEARDED TITMOUSE. 373 



from such sources as are still available, what can be gathered from 

 authors about the Bearded Tit in the Norf. and Nor. Nat. Trans, 

 vi. p. 429, and the following further particulars may be added. 

 It only breeds in Norfolk, and the only other counties in which 

 it is still to be found with any sort of regularity are Suffolk 

 and Cambridgeshire. 



In Suffolk, in March, 1899, a small flock was seen on Fritton 

 Lake and another on Oulton Broad, where, from enquiries on 

 the spot in 1885, I found it was to be met with; and in 1891 

 Mr. Bunn, the taxidermist, informed me of his having had several 

 from there at different times. Babington gives interesting 

 particulars of their former haunts (Birds of Suff. pp. 64, 251), but 

 they are now extinct on the Blyth and the Aide, but Mr. Tuck 

 was recently informed of some being on the River Lack. 



In Lincolnshire the late Mr. Cordeaux never met with a 

 specimen, yet in 1864 A. G. More thought it might breed in 

 that county ('Ibis,' 1865, p. 120), which was one of the five 

 enumerated by W. C. Hewitson. It is certain that when Gould, 

 in 1873, said it bred in all the fenny districts of Lincolnshire, he 

 was entirely wrong. Miller Christy has collected interesting 

 details of its former abundance in Essex, and even thought it 

 possible in 1890 that it might still be reckoned a resident in 

 extremely small numbers, though the last identified seems to 

 have been on the Biver Stort in July, 1888 (' Birds of Essex,' 

 pp. 91, 92). 



In Cambridgeshire, Mr. John Titterton, of Ely, does not 

 know the last date of its breeding, but is able to give the most 

 recent information of migrants, viz. that in 1897 fourteen were 

 seen, and in 1898 a flock of five, and again in December, 1899, a 

 flock of about a dozen, which remained for more than a month 

 in one place. These, however, by the end of January, 1900, had 

 been so upset by the harvesting of the reeds that only three or 

 four remained. In the palmy days of Whittlesea Mere they 

 must have been abundant, but Whittlesea is a thing of the past. 

 A pair obtained there in 1841 are in Newcastle Museum, and it 

 is on record that this locality furnished a white variety. 



For Surrey, some additional particulars are given in the 

 ' Birds of Surrey,' by J. A. Bucknill, who remarks that authors 

 have regarded the Bearded Tit as having been a resident at one 



