A HISTORY OF LEICESTERSHIRE A specimen, said to have been shot near Syston or Queniborough about 1880, is now in the museum. The keeper of Thornton Reservoir told me in 1885 that he had procured specimens there more than once during the past few years. 28. Bearded Reedling or Bearded Tit. Panurus blarmlcus (Linn.). Locally, Reed-pheasant. Said to have formerly occurred, but not recorded for many years. Those noted are the following : In October, 1885, I purchased from Elkington a pair of these birds, which he assured me were shot by T. Freer, some ten or twelve years before, at the ' back- water,' Bede House Meadows, Leicester; and on 3 Dec., 1885, 1 succeeded in finding Freer, then a very old man, living in a house next the 'Black Horse' atAylestone, and he remembered the circumstance perfectly, telling me that there were six or seven birds in the flock, to which he was attracted by their peculiar note a piping warble and that he shot three, one of them very badly. This was on 10 Nov., 1870, and he had never seen others before nor since. Of the three birds shot two were males and one female. One male went to the museum and the pair to Elkington. Mr. H. A. Payne of Enville gave me a note of the occurrence of this bird at Groby Pool in July, 1883. He informed me there were about a dozen of them running up the reeds and popping in and out the rushes. Many observers, however, who see the long-tailed tit climbing about reeds, mistake it for the bearded tit. 29. British Long-Tailed Tit. Acredula rosea (Blyth). Locally, Bottle-jug, Bottle-tit, Mumruffin. Resident, but sparingly distributed. Harley wrote : ' Pretty plentiful in thickly-wooded tracts, as, for example, the vicinity of Newtown Linford, Groby, and Anstey.' I have seen it at Whetstone of late years, and it has been seen by Messrs. Stuart Maples and Peter W. Druce, as lately as October, 1906, at Aylestone Mill, whilst Mr. G. Frisby has found its nest in a furze-bush at Quorn, on 16 April, 1906. 30. Great Tit. Parus major, Linn. Locally, Blackcap (by error), Ox-eye Tit, Saw- sharpener (in allusion to its note), Tom Tit. Resident and generally distributed. In June, 1883, I found in an apple tree at Aylestone Hall a nest of this species close to one of the blue tit, both con- taining young. It is well known what singular situa- tions this bird and the blue tit will sometimes choose for nesting, but never, perhaps, was a more extra- ordinary spot selected than in the summer of 1887, when a pair of these birds built their nest in an iron post common to the gates of the front garden of two houses on the Aylestone Road, Leicester, close to the Lansdowne Road, and in an extremely exposed posi- tion, not more than 2 ft. from the ground, abutting on the causeway, and only, of course, a few yards from the tram-lines, of a very public road. They apparently brought off their brood safely, but so quick and secret were these birds, that the people living in one of the two houses with their children had no idea of their existence. 31. British Coal Tit. Parus britannicus (Sharpe and Dresser). Resident, generally distributed, and commoner of 122 late years than the following species, from which it may be readily distinguished by its possession of two white alar bars and a whitish nape. According to Harley, this species builds in hollow and decayed timber-trees, and in crevices in old walls and buildings. Mr. W. J. Horn, writing in 1 907, says : ' I found a nest in a hole by the roadside in the town of Market Harborough, and last year this bird nested in a hole in an apple tree in my orchard. About 1906 I found a nest (with eggs) in a mole-run in Burbage Woods ; this I presented to the Leicester Museum. A pair come every day, with great and blue tits, to my bird table.' Mr. G. Frisby of Quorn found a nest with eggs on 2 April, 1906. 32. Marsh-Tit. Parus palustris, Linn. Resident, but sparingly distributed. Harley re- marked that it is partial to the willow and alder, in the decayed boles and branches of which it nests, and that it also affects the Scotch fir and other coniferous trees when decayed. Two, sent from Belvoir by Mr. Ingram, were shot on 14 Jan., 1886, one of which (a female) is now in the museum. Mr. Davenport wrote in December, 1887: 'This bird nested at Keythorpe in the summer of 1886 ; the eggs were taken, and the old bird, I grieve to say, killed. The only other instance of its nesting in the county coming under my notice was three or four years back, when I found the nest in a hole in a rotten branch of a tree in Skeffing- ton Wood. The bird was then building, and went on with its occupation entirely regardless of me. Seven eggs were eventually laid.' Mr. W. J. Horn writes in 1907 : ' I see this bird from time to time near my house (but it has never come to the bird table), and I have also found its nest in the park, Market Harborough. Its favourite nest- ing site is a hole in an ash " stub " in a wood. In such a position I found one on 3 May, 1806, near Hinckley.' 33. Blue Tit. Parus caerukus, Linn. Locally, Bluecap, Tom Tit. Resident and common. Regarding its nesting, Dr. C. J. Bond wrote on 27 June, 1887: 'Walking down Regent's Road yesterday, I saw a blue tit (torn tit) perch on a lamp-post with a caterpillar in its beak and then disappear inside the post, at the top, where the gas-pipe comes out of the hollow iron post ; when I distinctly heard the young birds close to the top. I should hardly have thought the bird would have had the hardihood to build within a few inches of a flaring gas-jet and daily visited by the lamplighter with his torch ; they must have had perpetual day.' A nest containing six eggs was obtained from Croft. It was built around the broken neck of a bottle, which had been dropped into a post-hole at the top of a stone pillar ; when found all the eggs but one had fallen to the bottom of the bottle. 34. Nuthatch. Sitta caesia, Wolf. Locally, Nut-jobber. Resident and sparingly distributed in wooded dis- tricts. According to Harley it has occurred at Bos- worth, Bradgate, Croxton, Donington, and Garendon. ' I have found it so near to Leicester as at Knighton, and at Kibworth and Wistow it is fairly common. Mrs. Perry Herrick writing about Beaumanor on 9 April, 1889, says: ' They constantly take nuts from
