412 BULLETIN 191, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Field marks. — The long crest, usually erect, will mark this species as 

 one of the crested titmice. The jet-black crest of the male and the dark 

 crest of the female, much darker than that of the other crested titmice, 

 will mark the bird as a black-crested titmouse; the subspecies are hardly 

 recognizable in the field. This species has a white forehead, often tinged 

 with brownish in the northern subspecies, whereas the tufted titmouse has 

 a black forehead. The females and young have more or less admixture 

 of gra}^ in the crown and crest. 



PARUS INORNATUS SEQUESTRATUS (Grinnell and Swarth) 

 OREGON TITMOUSE 



This northern race of the plain tits seems to occupy a very narrow 

 range in Jackson County, Oreg., and Siskiyou County, Calif., between 

 the Coast and Cascade Ranges. The describers, Grinnell and Swarth 

 (1926), state: 



[It] differs from Baeolophus inornatus inornafus, to which it is nearest geo- 

 pjraphically, in slightly smaller size and in grayer, more leaden color throughout, 

 with but a trace of the brownish tinge that shows clearly on the upper parts of 

 inornatus; lower surface less purely white, more suffused with gray. Similar 

 to B. i. grisens, but smaller, with especially shorter tail, and darker in color, much 

 le^s ashy in tone. Similar to B. i. affabUis but bill much smaller, and coloration 

 not quite so deeply leaden, especially as to wing and tail feathers. ♦ ♦ * 



Careful examination of the Museum's series of all the races here concerned has 

 convinced us that both the Lower California and Oregon forms are deserving of 

 names. It is a curious fact that, though the intervening forms are different from 

 either, these two subspecies, so far apart geographically, should be strikingly 

 alike in the matter of their relatively dark, brown-less coloration. The outstanding 

 difference between them lies in the bill. The Oregon bird is smaller billed even 

 than typical inornatus; the San Pedro Martir race is large billed, like murinus. 



The Oregon titmouse does not seem to differ materially in any of its 

 habits from its more southern relatives. 



The measurements of eight eggs average 17.8 by 13.2 millimeters; the 

 eggs showing the four extremes measure 18.1 by 12.4, and 17.5 by 14.0 

 millimeters. 



PARUS INORNATUS INORNATUS Gambel 



PLAIN TITMOUSE 



Plate 62 



HABITS 



This is, indeed, a plain titmouse, without a trace of contrasting colors 

 in its somber dress; inornatus, unadorned, is also a good name for it. 

 But it is a charming bird, nevertheless, with its jaimt\- crest, like a 



