BEARDED TITMOUSE. 
161 
INSESSORES. 
DENTJROSTRES. 
PA RID/E. 
BEARDED TITMOUSE. 
Calamophilus biarmicus. 
PLATE XL. FIG. III. 
The Bearded Titmouse is either so sparingly dis¬ 
persed in most parts of the country, or is, in those fenny 
districts where more abundant, so difficult to approach, 
that but little is known of its habits, except by those 
who for that purpose have made a visit to its retreats, 
which are chiefly in the marshy districts of the counties 
of Norfolk, Suffolk, Huntingdon, Cambridge, and Lin¬ 
coln. 
Never having myself had the pleasure of seeing it in 
its native haunts, I copy the narrative of an acute ob¬ 
server. Mr. Hoy thus writes in the pages of the “ Maga¬ 
zine of Natural History:”—“ The borders of the large 
pieces of fresh water in Norfolk, called Broads, particu¬ 
larly 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. I have found them 
numerous during the breeding-season on the skirts of 
Whittlesea, and they are not uncommon in the fenny 
districts of Lincolnshire. It begins building in the end 
of April. The nest is composed on the outside with the 
dead leaves of reed and sedge, intermixed with a few 
pieces of grass, and invariably lined with the top of the 
reed, somewhat in the manner of the nest of the reed-wren, 
M 
