2 
BEARDED TIT. 
limy arc remarkably hardy, and seem able to contend against severe weather with greater success than many 
much larger and apparently stronger birds. The fact that they can at all times obtain a supply of food from 
the seeds oi the reed and the insects that are found adhering to their stems, as well as shelter in the thick 
beds ol rushes, probably accounts for their lively and active condition during the heaviest storms of snow, when 
many other species appear numbed by cold and weak and helpless from want. 
The nest is generally placed among the stems of the reeds on some boggy spot that is difficult of access, 
though now and then I have discovered that the birds have selected firmer ground ; and in the neighbourhood 
of Somorton Broad, near VJ interton, 1 found a nest, containing eggs, that was built into the roots of a tussock 
of rushes in a field of marsh-hay. The leaves and other portions of the reed ( Phragmites communis ) arc the 
principal materials that arc used in the construction of their cradle by the Bearded Titmice ; and it is wonderful 
how neat a structure is produced by the means employed. The nests arc not unfrcquently situated but a few 
inches above the level of the water, and consequently arc 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 rivers. In such cases the birds at once 
commence a second nest on the top of their first edifice. This habit is so well known to some of the egg- 
seekers of the district that in wet seasons they invariably scrape up the rubbish below the nests they find, in 
hopes of discovering another set of eggs. 
The first Plate represents the adult male and female with their brood just after leaving the nest. At this 
early stage it is quite possible to distinguish the males from the females, as the beaks of the former show a 
yellow tint, while those of the latter arc not so brightly coloured. 
The second Plate gives the immature birds in the plumage of the first autumn. 
