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 thig-hs, 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 dilfers 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 httle 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 hke 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 
