PAIMUJ': — TIIK TITMICE. JI3 



four to six eggs. These lie describes as luiviiig, when fresli, a gronnd-cnlor 

 of pale blue, dashed all over with small black spots. 



Dr. Keunerly, in his Report on the Birds of the ^lexican Rouiidary Survey, 

 states that he met with this species in the vicinity of the liio Oraiide. They 

 were very wild, Hew rapidly, and to quite a distance before they alighted. 

 They seemed to trei[uent the low mezquite-bushes on the hillsides. 



Mr. Xantus found this species, when he first arrived at San Lucas, on the 

 4th of April, with young birds already fully fledged, although others were 

 still breeding and continued to breed until the middle of July. Two fifths 

 of all the eggs he collected that season, he writes, were of this species. This 

 may, liowever, have been in part owing to the conspicuous prominence of 

 their nests, as well as to their abundance. Xantus found the nest in va- 

 rious positions. In one instance it was suspended from a leafless branch 

 not three feet from the ground, with its entrance nearly to the ground. In 

 another instance it was on an acacia twenty feet from the ground. For 

 the most part they ai'e hung from low acacia-trees, on the extreme outer 

 branches. In all cases the entrance to the nest was from the lower end, or 

 towards the ground. 



Dr. J. G. Cooper, in his History of the Birds of California, speaks of find- 

 ing a large number of this beautiful little bird during the whole winter fre- 

 qixenting the thickets of algarobia and other shrubs, and with haliits inter- 

 mediate between those of Titmice and Warblers, corresponding with their 

 intermediate form. Their song resembles that of the Chickadee, and they 

 also uttered a loud cry, as they sat on high twigs, with a triple lisping note 

 resembling tzee-tee-tee. Dr. Cooper found a pair building on the 10th of 

 Alarch. They first formed a wall, nearly spherical in outline, of the thorny 

 twigs of the algarobia, in which tree the nest was usually built. They then 

 lined it with softer twigs, leaves, the down of plants, and leathers. They 

 covered the outside with thorns, until it became a mass as large as a man's 

 head, or nine inches by five and a half on the outside. The cavity is four 

 and a half inches by two, with an opening on one side just large enough for 

 the bird to enter. On the 27th of March, Dr. Cooper found the first nest 

 containing eggs. These were in aU instances four in number, pale blue, 

 with numerous small brown spots, chiefly near the larger end, though some 

 had very few spots and were paler. Their size he gives as .60 by .44 of an 

 inch. In one nest, which he closely observed, the eggs were hatched after 

 about ten days' incubation, and in two weeks more the young were ready to 

 leave their nest. 



Subfamily SITTING. 



The characters of the Sittina; are expressed with sufficient detail on page 

 86. The section is represented in America by a single genus, confined 

 mainly to the northern portion. 

 15 



