46 
British Birds. 
whereas the true /. E . emulate of Linnaeus inhabits Northern Europe and has a pure 
white head. It is distributed over the greater part of the British Islands, becoming 
rarer towards the northern parts, and it is said to range over France into Northern 
Italy, and east into the Rhine Provinces, but the actual distribution of the species is 
not exactly known at present. 
In spring these pretty little birds build their nest of moss and lichen, 
warmly coated inside with a mass of feathers, in a hedge or furze-bush, sometimes in 
a tree at a considerable height from the ground. The nest is often to be found quite 
early in the year, before the leaves have grown on the trees, and it is frequently 
placed in quite exposed situations. The eggs are white, with scarcely perceptible 
reddish dots, and are from six to ten in number, or even more. This numerous family 
is snugly housed in the mossy nest, and is brooded over at night by both parents, so 
that the long tails of the latter can be seen resting against the hind wall of the nest, 
and they are even said to protrude sometimes through the opening. In the autumn, 
family parties are formed, consisting of old and young birds, which fly about the 
woods hunting for their insect food, and following one another in regular procession 
from tree to tree. 
This is the common species of Scandinavia and Northern 
THE WHITE-HEADED „ . . . , . . 
Europe, visiting Central Europe in winter, at which season 
LONG-TAILED TIT. r b r 
. it occasionally migrates to the British Isles. In its adult 
(JEgithalus caiidatus.) J n 
plumage it is easily told by its pure white head, but the 
young of this and our British Long-Tailed Tit cannot be told apart, both having a 
dull white crown with a dusky band on each side, and, curiously enough, a longer 
tail than the old birds. In habits, nest, and colour of eggs, the White-Headed 
Long-Tailed Tit does not differ in any way from our insular species. 
This is not a true Tit at all, and ought perhaps to be called by 
its other name of the Bearded Reedling. In plumage, mode of 
THE BEARDED 
TIT. 
, n ,. . nesting, and colour of the eggs it is so different, that many 
(Panuriis biartmcus.) ° 00 
naturalists have referred it to the Buntings rather than to the Tits. 
My own opinion is that it belongs to neither group, but is really a Timeliine bird, 
akin to the Reed-birds of the tropical east, such as Paradoxornis, to which it 
assimilates in style of plumage and in habits. 
The old male is easily to be told by its cinnamon-red colour, its pearly-grey 
head, and by its broad black moustachial streak on each side of the cheeks. The 
female is duller in colour, has no black moustache, and the head is brown like the 
back. The young differ remarkably from both parents, being more tawny, and have 
a black patch in the centre of the back and a black stripe along either side of the 
crown. Though doubtless of wider distribution formerly in England than it is at the 
present time, the Bearded Tit is now almost confined to a few districts in the 
Norfolk and Suffolk Broads. On the Continent it occurs in marshy localities from 
Holland, France, and Spain, eastwards to Central Asia. 
