28 
BEARDED TIT. 
Whittlesea, near Hiinting-donshire, 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 hned with the top of the reed, somewhat in the 
manner of the nest of the reed wren, {^Sylvia arundinacea, Linnjeus,) 
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 reedhngs. 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 fi’om 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. ^ 
* Loudon’s Mag. of Nat. Hist. iii. 329. 
