PLAIN TITMOUSE 4l7 



Practically all the insects eaten by this titmouse are harmful, the 

 scales exceedingly so; it is therefore very beneficial in protecting the 

 trees of forest and orchard ; it is not sufficiently abundant to do any very 

 serious damage to cultivated fruits. 



Behavior. — With all its somber colors the plain titmouse is a most 

 attractive little bird, always cheeiy, active, and friendly as it forages 

 mnong the oaks for its insect prey, pecking and prying into every crack 

 and crevice, with its crest erected like a jaunty little jay and greeting us 

 with its varied notes. Mr, Adams (1898) gives his first impression of it 

 as follows: 



After searching the tree to which my attention had been called for some time, 

 my curious gaze rested upon a little gray bird which, with crest erected and 

 with his whole frame seemingly alert, was pecking furiously at the bark of the 

 oak, evidently in search of food. Now and then a single sharp note came to my 

 ears, and occasionally one slightly prolonged and possessing a greater degree of 

 authority. At times he seemed to be angry, and then his notes came faster and 

 harsher, but when a fat insect fell to his lot, he at once became pacified, his notes 

 were subdued, his crest lowered, and the once miniature Jay had become peaceful 

 Parus inomatus once more. ♦ ♦ ♦ 



This Titmouse is not very sociable and never gathers into large flocks — in 

 fact I have rarely seen more than three together at any time of the year. Like 

 many others of the feathered tribe, he has an inherent hatred towards owls. 

 I remember finding a nest of the California Screech Owl in a hollow trunk of an 

 oak and on the outside a cavity containing the nest of a titmouse. The thin parti- 

 tion separating the two sitters was not such as to prevent the scratching of the 

 owl being distinctly audible to the other. The female would often appear at the 

 entrance of her home greatly agitated. Sometimes she would mount the rim of the 

 trunk and peer down into the darkness as if to ascertain the cause of such a 

 commotion. The male when he visited his mate, would perhaps at her request, 

 fly repeatedly at the poor owl. 



Mrs. Ruth Wheeler tells me that these titmice "are the most in- 

 quisitive of the smaller birds. Whenever any disturbance is caused in 

 the woods, they are the first birds to arrive and raise an outcry. When- 

 ever we set the camera up near a nest or a feeding station, a titmouse 

 usually is soon on the scene carefully investigating." 



Voice. — Ralph Hoffmann (1927) writes: "Spring comes to the brown 

 hillsides of California as soon as the first rains break the long autumn 

 drought; the c.uckoo-flower and ferns push up through the mould, the 

 gooseberries blossom and the Plain Tit begins his lively if monotonous 

 refrain from the live oaks. Different birds have various forms of this 

 spring song, witt-y, zvitt-y, mitt-y or ti-tvee, ti-wee, ti-wee. It is al- 

 ways a high clear whistle with a marked accent, and a persistence that 

 shows the relationship of the bird to the Tufted Tit, with its pee-to, in 

 the river bottoms of the Middle West. The rest of the year, when the 



