BIRD BIOGRAPHIES 



snow and the soft gray shadows that lie across it, of red- 

 dish-brown shrubs and weeds, that he might escape notice 

 except for his conspicuous crest. He can be distinguished 

 from the cedar waxwing at a glance by his reddish sides, 

 and because of the absence of a yellow band across the tail 

 and of conspicuous black, white, and red patches or mark- 

 ings. 



Few more active birds exist than titmice. They are at 

 once the envy and the despair of aspiring small boys who 

 know them, because of their extreme agility — their ability 

 to perform acrobatic feats. They swing head downward 

 from twigs in the search for their favorite food of insect- 

 eggs; they seem strung on wires. 



In the woodlands frequented by tufted titmice, they are 

 as much in evidence as blue jays, because of their loud, 

 clear peto-peto-peto-peto-peto, a welcome and pleasant 

 sound during belated spring days or a bleak March "sug- 

 aring-off" season. 



They are less friendly than chickadees, but are not shy, 

 so they can be observed easily. They are very sociable 

 with their kind, and are found, "playing around" with 

 chickadees, nuthatches, and downy woodpeckers in the 

 winter-time, and snuggling close together in old nest-holes 

 during winter weather. In the spring, titmice use hol- 

 lowed trees for their nesting sites and have been known to 

 welcome a nesting-box. 



These birds do enormous good, not only in eating insect- 

 eggs, but in destroying caterpillars, cutworms, beetles, 

 weevils, flies, wasps, plant-lice, and scale-insects in their 

 season.^ They will eat berries, nuts, and acorns during 

 the winter and are extremely hardy. 



1 Farmers' Bulletin 630, Biological Survey, U. S. Department of Agri- 

 culture. 



[52] 



