MR. J. H. GURNEY ON THE BEARDED TITMOUSE. 
431 
quantity, and is regarded as such by several gentlemen in Norfolk 
who are now interested in protecting them. The annexed table 
is an approximate estimate of their decrease in five decennial 
periods since 1848: — 
1848. 1858. 1868. 1878. 1888. 1898. 
Number of Nests... 1G0 140 125 90 45 33 
The chief cause of their decrease is that the East Anglian Broads 
are gradually but surely growing up, but there is another reason. 
Eor years there used to be a systematic trade in their eggs, the 
recognised price of which was fourpence each, and Mr. Macpherson 
even ascertained that Norfolk eggs were being exported to continental 
egg dealers, a most unnecessary piece of robbery. Mr. G. Smith 
of Yarmouth also supplied a great number to Mr. Marsden, and 
from that source many collections in different parts of England 
were supplied with authenticated eggs. Both birds (in the summer) 
and eggs are now protected by law, and it is satisfactory to learn that 
the remnant are already feeling benefit from the protection afforded 
by this salutary measure, which came into force on May 1st, 1895 ; 
and there is a desire on all hands to see the law enforced. 
The Broads where the Bearded Tits have to some extent escaped 
persecution are the small private ones, and those places where 
the proprietors have allowed the reeds to grow instead of cutting 
them, thereby providing thick and high cover, which is an asylum 
where many a nest escape the keenest eye. Unfortunately it is 
rather an easy nest to find, because, as Lubbock remarks, a pair 
will choose one particular bed of reeds year after year, rather than 
move away to what may seem equally good quarters. 
Since the drainage of Salthouse Sea-broad in 1851 the Bearded 
Tit has ceased to breed there, if indeed it ever did so. It is possible 
that the examples obtained of recent years (in January, 1895, and 
on several previous occasions) in the adjoining parish of Cley, and 
at Burnham and Morston further along the coast, as well as on 
a large pond at Ilolt, in September, 1898, were migrants which 
had crossed the German Ocean. Frail as it is, it is capable of an 
over-sea flight, as is proved by its turning up on six occasions in 
the Island of Heligoland (Giitke). 
Among the wings received from floating lightships by East Coast 
naturalists it has never been detected, and there are few mentions in 
the 4 Reports of the Migration of Birds,’ but in ‘The Report’ for 1887 
