354 BULLETIN 191, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



placed anywhere from 1 to 23 feet above ground, commonly about 10 

 feet, "generally in natural cavities in dead elm, Chinaberry, Spanish oak, 

 live oak, post oak, or blackjack tree or stump ; in broken tops of leaning 

 stumps or trees in decayed limbs ; in old woodpecker hollows of tele- 

 graph pole or fence post ; in decaying posts of barbed-wire fences along 

 edges of woodlands ; hollow iron hitching posts in town ; bird boxes 

 about farm houses and town houses." He says that in central Texas it 

 seldom digs a hole of its own, unless forced to do so because of the 

 scarcity of natural cavities. 



He describes the nests as "composed of such warm materials as fine 

 strips of bark (particularly of the cedar), soft green mosses, cowhair, 

 plant fiber, wool, and feathers, with occasionally some rabbit fur, cotton, 

 plant down, straw, bits of string, grass, horsehair, thistle down, and 

 small buds. Lined with soft short cowhair, rabbit hair, plant down, and 

 occasionally soft wool, plant fiber, cotton and feathers. Bottom of cavity 

 filled with a good deal of green moss and occasionally with some cedar 

 bark." 



Eggs. — Mr. Simmons (1925) says that the set consists of three to 

 eight eggs, most commonly six. These are apparently indistinguishable 

 from those of other races of the species. The measurements of 40 eggs 

 average 14.9 by 11.7 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes 

 measure 16.5 by 12.4, 15.6 by 12.7, and 13.5 by 10.5 millimeters. 



Food. — Mrs. Nice (1931) writes: "In Norman the Chickadees were 

 among the most charming of our feeding shelf guests, announcing their 

 arrival with a cheery peep, enjoying everything we had to ofifer except 

 raisins, but fondest of sunflower seeds and nuts, sometimes taking baths 

 in the w^ater dish in January. * * * These little birds are so friendly, so 

 full of individuality and have so many different notes and pretty ways 

 that they afford a most promising subject for a careful life history study." 



Voice. — Mr. Simmons (1925) gives an elaborate account of the voice 

 of the plumbeous chickadee, which would probably apply equally well 

 to that of the other rac.es of carolinensis. He says that it is "quite un- 

 like that of the northern Chickadees ; a much higher pitched and more 

 hurriedly uttered chickadee-dee-dee-dee, characteristic of the Southern 

 species, frequently running into chich-a-dee-dee-dee-dee-dee-dee-dee; 

 tweesee-dee-dee-dce-dee ; a clearly whistled psec-a-dee; a low plaintive 

 tswee-dee-tswee-dee, of four tremulous whistled notes, in sharp contrast 

 to the clear, ringing notes te-derry, of the Northern birds ; a low sick- 

 a-dee; a short chick-a-da; a clearer my zvatcher hey, my watcher key; 

 a series of day-day-day or dee-dee-dee-dee notes."' 



