28 BEARDED TIT. 



Whittlesea, near Huntingdonshire, and they are not uncommon in 

 the fenny district of Lincolnshire ; whether they are to be met with 

 farther north, I have had no means of ascertaining-, but they do not 

 appear to have been noticed north of the Humber. It begins building 

 in the end of April. The nest is composed on the outside with the 

 dead leaves of the reed and sedge, intermixed with a few pieces of 

 grass, and invariably lined with the top of the reed, somewhat in the 

 manner of the nest of the reed wren, {Sylvia arunclinacea, LiNNiEus,) 

 but not so compact in the interior. It is generally placed in a tuft of 

 coarse grass or rushes near the ground, on the margin of the dikes, in 

 the fen ; also sometimes fixed among the reeds that are broken down ; 

 but never suspended between the stems. The eggs vary in number 

 from four to six, rarely seven ; pure white, sprinkled all over with small 

 purplish red spots, intermixed with a few small faint lines and markings 

 of the same colour ; size about the same as those of the oxeye, but 

 much more rounded at the smaller end. Their food during the winter 

 is principally the seed of the reed, and so intent are they searching for 

 it, that I have taken them with a birdlime twig attached to the end of 

 a fishing-rod. When alarmed by any sudden noise, or the passing of a 

 hawk, they utter their shrill musical notes, and conceal themselves 

 among the thick bottom of the reeds, but soon resume their station, 

 climbing the upright stems with the greatest facility. Their manners 

 in feeding approach near to the bottle tit, often hanging with the 

 head downwards, and turning themselves into the most beautiful atti- 

 tudes. Their food is not entirely the reed seeds ; but insects and their 

 larvae, and the very young shell-snails of different kinds which are 

 numerous in the bottom of the reedlings. I have been enabled to watch 

 their motions when in search of insects, having when there has been a 

 little wind stirring, been often within a few feet of them quite unno- 

 ticed among the thick reeds. Were it not "for their note betraying them, 

 they would be but seldom seen. The young, until the autumnal month, 

 vary in plumage from the old birds ; a stripe of blackish feathers ex- 

 tends from the hind part of the neck to the rump. The males and 

 females I have always observed in company ; they appear to keep in 

 families until the pairing time, in the manner of the bottle tit ; differ- 

 ing in this respect, that you will occasionally find them congregated in 

 large flocks, more particularly during the month of October, when they 

 are migrating from their breeding place. 1 



1 Loudon's Mag. of Nat. Hist. iii. 329. 



