TUFTED TITMOUSE. 237 



are probably not known there at all. In the Southern 

 States, at least in winter and spring, they are very com- 

 mon, and present all the usual habits and notes of the 

 genus. Near Chester, in Delaware, I heard the peculiar 

 call of this bird, and the notes of the Carolina Wren on 

 the 17th of April, 1831, and from the tardiness of ve- 

 getation at this season, it appeared probable that they 

 might pass the winter in their present quarters. The 

 numbers which I saw in the Southern States, from Janua- 

 ry to March, would seem to indicate a migratory habit ; 

 but whether they had arrived from the northeast, or 

 from the great forests of the west, could not be conjec- 

 tured. 



The Peto, as I may call this bird from one of his char- 

 acteristic notes, and the Carolina Wren, were my constant 

 and amusing companions during the winter, as I passed 

 through the dreary solitudes of the Southern States. The 

 sprightliness, caprice, and varied musical talent of this 

 species are quite interesting, and more peculiarly so, 

 when nearly all the other vocal tenants of the forest are 

 either absent or silent. To hear, in the middle of January, 

 when, at least, the leafless trees and dark cloudy skies 

 remind us of the coldest season, the lively, cheering, 

 varied pipe of this active and hardy bird, is particularly 

 gratifying ; and, though his voice, on paper, may appear 

 to present only a list of quaint articulations, mere skele- 

 tons of musical compass, yet the delicacy, energy, pa- 

 thos, and variety of his simple song, like many other 

 things in nature, are far beyond the feeble power of de- 

 scription; and if in these rude graphic outlines of the in- 

 imitable music of birds, I am able to draw a caricature 

 sufficient to indicate the individual performer, I shall 

 have attained all the object to be hoped for in an attempt 

 at natural delineation. 



