TUFTED TITMOUSE 393 



of humidity being required by this species. Dr. Grinnell (1904) re- 

 marks tliat "even the Santa Cruz District with its gray-sided barlowi 

 has very much greater rainfall and cloudiness than regions immediately 

 to the southward and interiorly. Too abrupt aridification with accom- 

 panying floral changes apparently forms the present barrier to further 

 distribution in these directions." 



One would hardly expect Barlow's chickadee to differ materially in 

 its habits from the otiier two races of the species, and this seems to be 

 the case, though differences in environment may cause it to select 

 unorthodox nesting sites, as the following quotations will show. Dudley 

 S. De Groot wrote to Milton S. Ray (1916) of three nests found in 

 Golden Gate Park: "A nest found April 7, 1916, which contained six 

 badly incubated eggs lying in a thick bed of rabbit fur, was located 

 eight feet up in a hole in the side of a log cabin. Another was in a 

 small cavity fifteen feet up in a eucalyptus and contained young almost 

 ready to fly. The third nest was remarkable for its situation, being 

 placed in a pipe leaning against an out-building. The nest was about 

 one and a half feet down the pipe, which was only three inches in 

 diameter, and contained, in very cramped quarters, young birds about 

 half grown." 



Joseph MailHard (1931) located a nest in the same park that was in 

 "the large mandibular foramen on the inside of the left mandible of the 

 huge Sulphur-bottom Whale skeleton under the shed!" 



The eggs of Barlow's chickadee are practically indistinguishable from 

 those of the chestnut-backed chickadee. The measurements of 40 eggs 

 average 15.5 by 11.9 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes 

 measure 17.3 by 12.2, 15.2 by 12.7, and 14.2 by 11.2 millimeters. 



PARUS BICOLOR Linnaeus 

 TUFTED TITMOUSE 



Plates ^. 61 



HABITS 



As w-e travel southward, weary of the rigors of the northern winter 

 and anxious to meet spring halfway, one of the first southern birds to 

 greet us from the still leafless woods is this cheery little tomtit. Long 

 before we reach the land of blooming jessamine, hibiscus, and oleanders, 

 we may hear its loud, whistling peto, peto, welcoming us to his home in 

 the southland. 



To tJie novice, these notes may at first seem to bear a resemblance to 



