PLAIN TITMOUSE 413 



miniature jay, its sprightly manners, and its melodious voice. Its gray 

 coat blends well with the trunks and branches of the oaks among which 

 it forages. It is the western counterpart of our familiar eastern tufted 

 titmouse, which it resembles in appearance, behavior, and voice and for 

 which it might easily be mistaken, unless clearly seen. 



The species, of which there are at least nine subspecies, occupies a wide 

 range in western North America, from the Rocky Mountain region to 

 the Pacific coast, and from Oregon to Lower California. The type race 

 is now restricted to northern and central California. 



The favored haunts of the plain titmouse are the oak-clad, sunny 

 slopes of the foothills, where the foliage of the evergreen oaks provides 

 shelter and a good food supply all the year around ; and here it is prac- 

 tically resident at all seasons. It seldom seems to range above 3,500 feet. 



In the Lassen Peak region, according to Grinnell, Dixon, and Lins- 

 dale (1930), "a considerable variety of larger plant species furnished 

 situations favorable for some major activity of this bird species. The 

 trees and shrubs that were definitely recorded as foraged through by 

 the plain titmouse are the following: willow, cottonwood, sycamore, 

 valley oak, live oak, black oak, blue oak, golden oak, several species of 

 orchard trees, digger pine, and buckbrush. We were left with the im- 

 pression that the blue oak is the tree within the Lassen section used for 

 feeding place, nesting, and shelter by the largest number of these birds." 



Courtship. — Dr. John B. Price (1936), who studied for six seasons 

 the family relations of the plain titmouse at Stanford University, Calif., 

 makes no mention of a courtship performance, nor can I find it men- 

 tioned elsewhere. But his studies reveal a tendency to remain mated 

 for more than one year ; he says : 



"A titmouse usually keeps the same mate from year to year and 

 there was only one known case of 'divorce'. Of a total of 14 pairs 

 recaptured, 11 were mated together for at least two years and only 3 

 were not. No sex difTerence was found in the retention of territory 

 from year to year. If a bird lost its mate the survivor, whether male 

 or female, remained in the nesting territory and secured a new mate. 

 In one case the new mate was known to be a juvenile of the year 

 before. * * * An interesting fac,t is that there was only one case of 

 'divorce' where a bird took a new mate while its former mate was 

 still known to be living. In all other cases where a titmouse took a 

 new mate the former mate was never recaptured anywhere and quite 

 probably was dead, especially as in several cases it was known to be 

 several years old." One male "was banded as an adult in 1928 and 

 was recaptured nesting in the same box in 1934 when it must have 

 been at least seven years old." It was absent in 1935. 



