454 
PERCHING BIRDS. 
the upper part of a long cleft between two large branches, to the base of which a 
pouch twice or three times as long as the jar itself was attached perpendicularly, 
filling up the face of the fork between the branches ; the entrance hole being the 
mouth of the jar. This nest was built of moss closely covered with pieces of 
lichen. An early breeder, this tit lays from ten to fourteen white eggs, spotted 
with red; the young being sometimes hatched as early as the month of April. 
Both the old birds participate in the labours of incubation, and we have known 
the young of this species reared from the nest by hand. Indeed, long-tailed tits 
have been kept in confinement for no less a period than two years. The method 
of treatment was to confine these birds between large double windows where ivy 
was growing, on the leaves of which numbers of plant-lice were found, and upon 
these the freshly caught tits fed, and by degrees got accustomed to confinement, 
and would take ants’ eggs and other food. About a dozen species of the genus arc 
now known; the most recently discovered being the Macedonian long-tailed tit. 
Possessing a black chin, this tit otherwise resembles the British long-tailed tit but 
with black instead of white lores. Irby’s long-tailed tit inhabits Spain and Italy, 
while the Turkish long-tailed tit resembles the last-named in having the centre of 
the back grey and not black, but differs in the presence of a large blackish patch on 
the centre of the throat. A sixth species inhabits the northern slopes of the 
Caucasus, and has the forehead pale brownish, and the sides of the crown brown 
instead of black. The adult has the whole of the head snowy white, the hind part 
of the neck deep black, the sides of the back and scapulars vinous red, the wings 
and tail black and white, and the under-parts whitish tinged with pink. 
The single representative of the genus Panurus possesses a 
The Bearded Tit o 1 © 1 
’ short, subconical bill; the wing has the first primary very minute, 
the tail is long and graduated, the metatarsus is also long, and the feet are com¬ 
paratively stout; but the distinctive character is the elongation of the feathers of 
the sides of the throat into a moustache. The bearded tit (P. biarmicus) is peculiar 
to Central and North Europe in its typical form, being replaced in Central Asia 
by a paler variety. Throughout its range it haunts large reed-beds and marshes. 
Norfolk was formerly its home, and a few pairs still breed in some of 
the more favoured parts of the broads; Mr. Stevenson writing that “ when 
shooting at Surlingham, in the winter months, I have more than once 
observed the arrival of a flock from some neighbouring broad, their presence 
overhead being indicated by the clear ringing of their silvery notes uttered 
preparatory to their pitching into the nearest reed-bed; and in autumn, after 
roosting in small parties on the reeds, they will fly up simultaneously soon after 
sunrise, swarming for a while like a flock of bees, and uttering in full chorus their 
pretty song, disperse themselves over the reed-beds for their morning meal. 
Delicate as these little creatures appear, I have found them during the sharpest 
frosts, when the snipe had left the half - frozen waters for upland springs and 
drains, still busy among the reed - stems as lively and musical as ever.” The 
writer also says that he has often found the nests completed by the end of the 
first week of April. These are generally placed amongst the reed-stems close 
to the edge of the water, supported on the loose herbage forming the foundation of 
the reed-beds, but never in any way suspended; they are constructed of the 
