Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 4 (1900).djvu/394

360 all these flocks are the same individuals which summer on the broads may be doubted.

In some, if not in all, of its Dutch and German habitats it is alleged to be migratory. This is the character which Schlegel and Naumann give it, and one might expect the same in England. In Normandy it is only a summer visitant, but, on the other hand, in Luxemburg it is regarded as a winter visitant, and Keulemans has known it to occur in Holland in winter.

In Belgium it appears from Dubois's 'Oiseaux observés en Belgique' (1885) to be now very rare, though still to be sometimes seen in the marshes of Flanders and Antwerp, no doubt the same causes operating to reduce its numbers as in England. As it does not go further south than the Mediterranean, or further north than Pomerania, its migrations cannot be very great, as they are confined between 37° N. lat. and 56° N. lat. Norfolk is very near its northern and its western limits. But in an easterly direction its range is very extensive, for it appears to reach right across Asia—where it becomes slightly paler—into China.

According to l'Abbé David it is "extrèmement commune dans la region marécageuse qui's'étend au sud du coude septentrional du Hoangho" (the Yellow River), and this is on the authority of Col. Prjevalsky, who brought back large collections of insects and birds from that country. ('Orn. Miscellany,' ii. p. 191.)

It is also found in Turkestan ('Stray Feathers,' 1876, p. 154), where, according to Dr. Scully, it is exceedingly common. (Cf. map, p. 374.)

We find very little about the Bearded Tit in the early authors, but this is not singular, because of the aquatic situations in which it resides, and Latham (1783) remarks that these birds had only been observed in marshy situations, as though, their peculiar characteristics not being known, there were some who thought they might be looked for in woods and thickets!

From Sir T. Browne's day (1674) to Sir William Hooker's (Diary 1807–40) there appears to be no Norfolk mention of the Bearded Tit. Hooker, occupied with plants, merely says that it was by no means infrequent at Surlingham Broad, which was