BLACK-CRESTED TITMOUSE 407 



bird's flying into its opening. It lay some ten or twelve inches from the opening, 

 aad is composed chiefly of wool intermixed with strips of soft inner bark, and 

 now and then bits of snake-skins ; the whole being much firmer and thicker than 

 is usual with nests that are built in hollow stubs. All other nests found with 

 young were situated higher, with one exception ; the distance varying from four 

 to twelve feet from the ground. I found them to occupy usually the abandoned 

 holes of the Texas Woodpecker, Pictis scalaris; but split forks of trees were some- 

 times put in use. They prefer living trees to dead ones, and in every case in my 

 experience the opening had to be enlarged, sometimes with difficulty, before 

 examination of the nest could be made- The localities mostly selected for nesting 

 are groves or open timber free from uudergrowth, whether in old lagoon beds, 

 which receive the overflow from the river, or on the driest knolls. They do 

 not avoid human habitations, as two nests were found on the ranch in ebony-trees, 

 near buildings much frequented. The parents guard their treasures well, and are 

 much disturbed when the nest is invaded; though not until they see that their 

 nest is actually being handled do they give any cry of alarm, or other intimation 

 of uneasiness than their near presence. 



Others have referred to this bird's use of pieces of cast-off snake- 

 skin in its nests, which seems to be a comnion practice with the species. 



Eggs. — The black-crested titmouse probably deposits a set of five or 

 six eggs ordinarily, perhaps sometimes as many even as seven, or as 

 few as four. 



Of the single tgg, referred to above, Mr. Sennett (1879) says: "The 

 groimd color is clear dead white; distributed unevenly over the whole 

 surface, and not very sparingly, are flecks and blotc.hes of fawn-color 

 of various shades, the sides having rather more than either end." A 

 set of four fresh eggs he describes as follows: "The ground color is 

 pinkish-white, Tlie spots of reddish-brown are small and few in 

 number, and scattered over the greater part of the egg, but at the larger 

 end they are large and numerous, covering nearly the whole end, 

 though in no case forming a ring." 



The measurements of 50 eggs average 17.0 by 13.5 millimeters; the 

 eggs shov/ing the four extremes measure 18.9 by 13.5, 16.2 by 14.4, 

 15.0 by 13.4, and 15.1 by 12.7 millimeters. 



Young. — The period of incubation does not seem to be known. Mr. 

 Sennett (1879) found that both sexes share the duties of incubation, 

 for he took a male on the nest, and noticed that other males had bare 

 and wrinkled bellies. Apparently two broods are reared in a season. 



Plumages. — According to Mr. Sennett (1879), the "young just from 

 the tgg are nude, with the exception of a few long, dark, downy 

 feathers on the back, nape, and over the eyes." 



Ridg^vay (1904) describes the young in juvenal plumage as "essen- 

 tially like adults, but blac^ of crown and crest much duller (the feathers 

 often narrowly tipped with grayish), lees sharply defined laterally and 



