Here the eggs were laid early in the morning, and when the birds had left the nest he invariably found that the lining was pulled over the eggs. Many eggs were laid, two hens laying more than fifty in one summer, a fair proportion of which in a wild state would have been hatched.
Mr. Young thinks they might be hatched, and even the young reared in confinement, by supplying the old birds with the pupæ of the common blow-fly, which he has found to answer with Siskins, and fresh ants' eggs would probably be useful. He kept one nearly five years. Mr. Lowne, of Yarmouth, a well known prize-taker at bird shows, reared six Bearded Tits from the nest on dry ants' eggs with hard-boiled egg well sieved, but they were pugnacious enough to pull each other's tails out, and had to be separated.
Another correspondent, Mr. J.L. Bonhote, had a pair three years, and kept them in an outdoor avairy through the hard winter of 1895. In 1896 the hen built a nest with materials brought her by the cock, and, commencing on April 14th, laid a clutch of seven eggs, two of which were hatched on the thirteenth day, and the young grew well, but died suddenly on the seventh day when beginning to shoot their feathers.[1]
Former Breeding Area.
In the accompanying Map (PI. V.) the pink colour is intended to show where this species formerly bred in England, an area which must always have coincided with the reed beds suitable to its requirements, which, prior to the draining of the great Bedford Level in the early part of the seventeenth century, were much more extensive than they are now. Of the nineteen spots marked pink in the map, only one is still a breeding-place at the present day, which is a somewhat sad reflection; while the old haunts on the Thames have long been deserted, though still sometimes referred to in books.
As it is a good plan to summarise what is known about any British bird's distribution (as Fatio and Studer are doing for Switzerland and Ternier for France), I have given at some length,
- ↑ Mr. Bonhote has just published an article on this subject (cf. 'Avicultural Magazine' for August.)
