CHICADEE, OR BLACK-CAPT TITMOUSE. 245 



But after a while the usual drawling note again occurs. 

 These birds, like many others, are very subject to the at- 

 tacks of vermin, and they accumulate in great numbers 

 around that part of the head and front which is least 

 accessible to their feet. 



The European bird is supposed to be partial to marshy 

 situations. Ours has no such predilection, nor does the 

 American bird, that I can learn, ever lay up or hide any 

 store of seeds for provision, a habit reported of the foreign 

 family. In this fact, with so many others, we have an 

 additional evidence of affinity between the Titmouse and 

 Jay.* Even the blue color, so common with the latter, is 

 possessed by several species of this genus. Indeed from 

 their aggregate relation, and omnivorous habit, we see no 

 better place of arrangement for these birds than succinct- 

 ly after the Garruli or Jays. 



The Cliicadee is o^ inches in length, and 6.^ in alar extent. The 

 throat, head, and ridge of the neck black. Cheeks, ears, and a line 

 to the base of the bill, white. Above cinereous, tinted with brown. 

 The wings darker, edged with whitish. Beneath, the rest of the plu- 

 mage is white, tinted with greyish-brown. The bill black. Tongue 

 blunt. Legs bluish-grey. Iris dark hazel. The sexes and ijoimg, to 

 me, are hardly distinguisable apart. I have never seen the young 

 with brown heads ; they have tlie head quite black from the time they 

 leave the nest. 



Note. — Although in compliance with the opinion of Temminck, 

 I have referred the Cliicadee to the European species, yet there is a 

 considerable discrepancy in the habits of the two. The latter appears 

 to form a soft nest of down and feathers ; ours makes, I believe no 

 bedding for its nest whatever. 



The Hudson's Bay Titmouse is said to have a ferruginous broxcn 

 head ; to utter scarcely any note beyond a chirp ; and to dwell chiefly 

 among Juniper thickets. It is also said to build in the same bushes, 

 in June, a nest of grass, lined with feathers, containing usually 5 

 eggs. It is also known by the aborigines under a different name 

 from the Chicadee. 



* This curious relation was, I believe, first pointed out by Prince Bonaparte in the 

 history of Steller's Jay. 



21* 



