PANURIDAE—TITS. 91
Family PANURIDAE.
Bearded Tit: Panurus biarmicus. Locally, "Reed Pheasant."
A scarce and local resident in Britain, and rapidly becoming
rarer on account of
the draining of its
haunts. It once bred
commonly in Essex,
and a nest was found
near Sudbury as
lately as 1868. It
may even do so yet,
though this has not
been established.
Albin says (3. i. 46) :
" I have been informed
by Sir Robert Abdy that
they are found in the
salt marshes in Essex,"
and Donovan quotes (5.
i. 6) Albin's words. "A
Lover of Nature," writ-
ing from Woolwich in
1829, says (12. ii. 222) : " Bearded Titmice inhabit the marshes bordering on the
Thames, both in Kent and Essex. I was told in December last that some had
lately been seen in a large piece of reeds below Barking Creek. * * * The
Bearded Titmouse is known in these parts by the name of the Reed Pheasant." He
next details his observations upon eight or ten of these birds which he saw at the
spot named, and one of which he contrived to shoot. "O," writing in 1832,
says (12. v. 544) that at that time it might be seen about the months of Novem-
ber and December feeding on the seeds of the reed, which then grew in great
luxuriance on the banks of the lake at Dagenham. Yarrell, in 1843, says (14. i.
353) it " inhabits the various reed-beds on the banks of the Thames."
More, writing in 1865, says (23. 121) that it "still breeds in Surrey (Rev. J. C
Atkinson), and probably in Essex (where the bird has been noticed)." This
surmise seems to have been correct, for Mr. Grubb informed Canon Babington
(46. 65) that he believed he saw a pair in a bed of reeds in the Stour near Brun-
don Hall, Sudbury, in or about 1868. Mr. J. F. Hills informed the same gentle-
man (46. 65) that he also had seen them on the Stour at Sudbury, and that they
bred there in April, 1868, when he took three young birds out of a nest of five,
and brought them up by hand. They were exhibited at the Crystal Palace the
following February when nearly ten months old. Mr. Hills tells me that this
nest was on the Essex side of the river. In reply to my enquiry as to whether it
used formerly to breed in the Essex marshes, the Rev. J. C. Atkinson writes: " Yes ;
I never saw the nest myself, but I heard of it. There were many acres of reeds in
various places in my boyish days." Dr. Laver also remembers seeing specimens