BEARDED TIT. 



27 



a point downwards ; the hind part of the neck and back light rufous- 

 orange ; scapulars whitish ; throat white ; breast cinereous flesh-colour ; 

 belly, sides, and thighs, like the back, but paler ; vent black ; quill- 

 feathers dusky ; the inner webs of the primores white ; the secondaries 

 edged, and those next the body tipped with the same colour as the back; 

 the tail is about three inches long, and very cuneiform, nearly the colour 

 of the back ; the three outer feathers more or less tipped with white ; 

 legs black. 



The female differs in having no black mark under the eye or at the 

 vent ; the head is light ferruginous, spotted with black ; between the 

 bill and eye a dusky spot. 



The history of this species is very little known, although it breeds 

 with us, and continues the whole year. It is found in the marshes 

 amongst the reeds between Erith and London, in Gloucestershire, and 

 amongst the great reedy' tracks near Cowbit in Lancashire. We have 

 also killed it near Winchelsea in Sussex, amongst the reeds close to the 

 sea-shore, in the month of June ; there were five together, doubtless 

 the brood of that year. One of the young which we procured had its 

 nestling feathers much the colour of the female ; but the feathers were 

 of a looser texture, as in all young birds. We took much pains to find 

 the nest, but without success, unless it is so like that of the reed 

 wren's as not to be distinguished, as that bird bred in the same place, 

 and many such nests were taken. Authors have differed with respect 

 to the shape and composition of the nest, as well as in the place of 

 nidification ; one making it the shape of a purse suspended to a branch 

 of a willow ; another gives it placed on the ground amongst sedge of a 

 loose texture, composed of the down of the reed intermixed with nar- 

 row leaves ; and that it lays four eggs of a reddish white, spotted with 

 brown ; others have undoubtedly taken the nest of the reed wren for 

 it; so that no certain conclusion is to be drawn from these various 

 accounts. *By some unaccountable mistake Montagu's description of 

 the nest of the bottle tit was given in Pennant's British Zoology, as 

 belonging to this bird.* 



* " The borders," says Mr. Hoy, " of the large pieces of fresh water 

 in Norfolk, called Broads, particularly Hickling and Horsey Broads, 

 are the favourite places of resort of this bird ; indeed it is to be met 

 with in that neighbourhood, wherever there are reeds in any quantity 

 with fenny land adjoining. During the autumn and winter they are 

 found dispersed, generally in small parties, throughout the whole 

 length of the Suffolk coast, wherever there are large tracts of reeds. 

 I have found them numerous, in the breeding season, on the skirts of 



