3^4 



Brit ish Cage Birds. 



pale pinkish white or flesh colour ; the belly, sides, and thighs, 

 are pale chestnut yellow ; the vent is black. The quill feathers 

 of the wings are an indefinite blackish brown, edged with white ; 

 the lesser coverts are of the same colour, and the greater coverts 

 chestnut orange, with pale margins. The secondary flying 

 feathers are edged with reddish brown outside, and white on 

 the inner plume ; the bastard wing is dingy blackish brown, 

 bordered and tipped with white. The tail is cuneiform in 

 shape, the two exterior feathers being much shorter than the 

 remainder. The legs and feet are black. 



Habits and Breeding. — The Bearded Tit, known by a 

 variety of other names, such as the Bearded Pinnock, the 

 Lesser Butcher Bird, and the Bearded Reed Bird, is indigenous 

 to this country, and is found chiefly in fenny and marshy 

 districts, and on uncultivated wastes where reeds and rushes 

 grow amid pools of water that have m outlet, in some parts of 

 Kent, Gloucestershire, Devonshire, Cornwall, Staffordshire, Lin- 

 colnshire, Lancashire, and Westmoreland. It is common in 

 some parts of Denmark and Sweden. 



The nests are seldom met with, as tbe birds generally build 

 in places which can only be reached by means of a boat or 

 punt. They are, however, sometimes found attached to reeds 

 growing in the centre of a shallow pool, by the side of a lake, 

 or, may be, secured to a willow overhanging a stream of water 

 in some valley in a mountainous district. The nests are com- 

 posed of grass stalks, root fibres, and the down of various plants, 

 and are made in the shape of an old-fashioned long purse. 



The hen lays four or five eggs, of a pale reddish, or pink 

 colour, spotted with brown and chocolate ; she incubates about 

 fourteen days. The young remain in the nest until fully 

 fledged, and able to fly clear away. 



Methods of Capture. — The Bearded Tit is difficult to 

 ensnare. The best method is to fix horse-hair nooses, or secure 

 limed twigs, to reeds or rushes that bear seed, in any locality 

 the birds are known to frequent. The spot selected for opera- 

 tions should be carefully watched from a distance by the aid of 

 a good field glass, and those birds which become entangled 

 speedily liberated, or they will in all probability injure them- 

 selves in their struggles for freedom. 



Food and Treatment. — In a wild state, these birds feed 

 almost entirely on insects of various kinds, and the seeds that 



