4l8 BULLETIN 191, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Plain Tit is hunting leisurely through the oaks, his commonest note is 

 a scratchy tsick-a-dee-dee or tslck-a-dear, which has to make up to a 

 California bird lover in the lowlands for the absence of the Black-capped 

 Chickadee." 



Mrs. Bailey (1902) says: "There is an indefinable charm about the 

 slow, cjearly enunciated tu-whit, to-zvhit, tu-wJiit, that echoes through 

 the oaks, telling of the presence of the plain titmouse." Mrs. Wheelock 

 (1904) says that "his common note of tsee-day-day is not unlike that 

 of the mountain chickadee, and occasionally he indulges in a whistled 

 peto, peto that reminds one of his pretty Eastern cousin." 



W. L. Dawson (1923) adds a few more similar notes, and a ssic-rap 

 sssicrap, and one that "sounded like di di di tipoong, di di di tipoong. 

 the di notes very wooden and prosaic, the concluding member suddenly 

 and richly musical." 



Field marks. — A plump, chunky bird, plainly clad in somber grayish 

 brown above and plain gray below, with a prominent crest, usuall} 

 erected, could be no other than a plain titmouse. Its favorite haunts 

 are among oaks, its behavior suggests the chickadees, and its notes 

 though varied are characteristic of the family. 



Enemies. — Titmice, like all other small birds, have to be constantly 

 on the alert to avoid all the well-known predatory birds and mammals, 

 but this species has an important enemy in the California jay. Dr. 

 Price (1936) says: "Jays are often seen about nesting boxes containing 

 young titmouses and sometimes perch on the box and peer inside. When 

 the young birds leave the nest the jays often dive at them and kill them." 



DISTRIBUTION 



Range. — Western United States and northwestern Mexico ; not mi- 

 gratory. 



The range of the plain titmouse extends north to southern Oregon 

 (Gold Hill and probably Blitzen Canyon) ; Utah (Boulder) ; and Colo- 

 rado (Douglas Springs and Canyon City). East to c.entral Colorado 

 (Canyon City) ; extreme western Oklahoma (Kenton) ; New Mexico 

 (Santa Fe, Corona, and Capitan Mountain) ; and western Texas (Guada- 

 lupe Mountain). South to Texas (Guadalupe Mountain) ; southern 

 New Mexico (Silver City) ; and northern Baja California (Valladares). 

 West to western Baja California (Valladares and Las Cruces) ; Cali- 

 fornia (Twin Oaks, Pasadena, Watsonville, and Red Bluff) ; and west- 

 em Oregon (Ashland, Medford, and Gold Hill). 



At outlined the range is for the entire species, of which nine geo- 

 graphic races are recognized. The typical subspecies (Parus inornatus 



