LEAD-COLORED PLAIN TITMOUSE 423 



Hghtfully homelike and conversational in tone, including its rapid wheed-leah, 

 wheed-leah, wheed-leah, repeated three or four times in quick succession, and its 

 chickadee-like ischc-de-dee, tu-we-twee-tivee, sometimes used to preface its loud 

 clear pe-to calls. But its most conversational notes are best heard at the nest, 

 where you may perhaps listen to a variety of small talk, such as the infantile, 

 lisping notes of the hungrj', brooding bird coaxing her mate to feed her; the 

 tender note of her mate calling her to come to the door for the food he has 

 brought; pretty conjugal notes of greeting and farewell; the chattering scold 

 and cries of anger, anxiety, and terror, heard when enemies threaten; sharp 

 notes of warning to the young, and wails of grief when harm has come to the 

 nestlings. Such notes, given emphasis by vivacious, eloquent movements and 

 gestures, interpret the thoughts and feelings of these intense little feathered folk, 

 almost as clearly as elaborate conversations do the emotions of less demonstrative 

 human beings. 



PAK/US mORNATUS PLUMBESCENS (GrinneU) 

 LEAD-COLORED PLAIN TITMOUSE 



In naming this subspecies, Dr. Joseph GrinneU (1934) says of it: 

 "As compared v\'ith Baeolophiis inornatus griseus, from the eastern part 

 of the Great Basin region, north of the Colorado River: similar in gen- 

 eral features, but bill smaller, especially shorter; tail shorter; coloration 

 darker, more leaden hued, this tone most pronounced dorsally but per- 

 vading the lower parts also. Color of back, close to Deep Mouse Gray 

 (of Ridgway, 1912, pi. li)." 



He gives as its range "New Mexico (at least southwestern) and 

 parts of Arizona south of the Colorado and Little Colorado rivers." 



PARUS INORNATUS KERNENSIS (GrinneU and Behle) 

 KERN BASIN PLAIN TITMOUSE 



Dr. Joseph GrinneU and William H. Behle (1937) have named this 

 local race of the plain titmouse, giving the following diagnosis : "Com- 

 pared as to c.oloration with B. i. inornatus, dorsum grayer, less brownish, 

 and flanks and underparts generally slightly less buffy, clearer whitish ; 

 compared with B. i. transpositus, less olivaceous dorsally, and paler 

 gray below ; less clearly gray dorsally, but paler below, than in saleptns. 

 In size characters, closest to inornatus; bill decidedly shorter, less 

 massive, than in saleptus, and less massive even than in transpositus." 



They give the range as "drainage basin of Kern River, Avithin south- 

 eastern rim of San Joaquin Valley, in Kern County, and extreme 

 southern Tulare County, California." 



