576 APPENDIX. 



BLACK-CAP TITMOUSE. 



(Parus atricapiUus, Linn. i. p. 341. sp. 6. Brisson, Orn. iii. p. 553. 

 pi. 29. fig. 1. Swains, and Richard. North. Zool. ii. p. 226. 

 BoNAP. Synops. p. 100. No. 157. Parus palustris, Nutt. Man. 

 Orn. i. p. 241.) 



Following the authority of Temminck and Montagu, I 

 considered this bird the same as the European Marsh Tit- 

 mouse. I have since seen the bird of Europe in its native 

 country^ and have good reason to believe it wholly different 

 from our lively and familiar Chicadee. Unlike our bird, it 

 is rather shy, seldom seen but in pairs or solitary, never 

 in domestic premises, usually and almost constantly near 

 streams or water courses, on the willows, alders, or other 

 small trees impending over streams, and utters now and 

 then a feeble complaining or querulous call, and rarely if 

 ever the ' chicka dee-dee.' It also makes a noise in the 

 spring, as it is said, like the whetting of a saw, which ours 

 never does. The Chickadee is seldom seen near waters ; 

 often, even in summer, in dry shady and secluded woods ; 

 but when the weather becomes cold, and as early as Octo- 

 ber, roving families pressed by necessity and the failure of 

 their ordinary insect fare, now begin to frequent orchards 

 and gardens, appearing extremely familiar, hungry, indigent 

 but industrious, prying with restless anxiety into every cran- 

 ny of the bark or holes in decayed trees after dormant 

 insects, spiders and larv^, descending with the strictest 

 economy to the ground in quest of every stray morsel of 

 provision which happens to fall from their grasp. Their 

 quaint notes and jingling warble are heard even in winter 

 on fine days when the weather relaxes in its severity ; and 

 in short, instead of being the river hermit of its European 

 analogue : it adds by its presence, indomitable action, and 

 chatter, an air of cheerfulness to the silent and dreary win- 



