EASTERN VERDIN 433 



first birds to approach, showing little fear as it 'cheeps' in a thin voice 

 and moves quickly about in anxious inquisitiveness." 



Voice. — The verdin has a remarkable voice for so small a bird, one 

 that would do credit to an oriole or a thrush. Dr. Taylor says in his 

 notes: "The song of the verdin I put down as tswee, tswee, tswee, 

 tsweet! All the calls are whisded. Another call is tsee, tsoo, tsoor! 

 and tsee, tsoo, tsooy!" He writes the common short call note as tsit, 

 tsit, tsit, tsit; the notes are run together more or less and are repeated 

 very rapidly. 



Mary Beal (1931) says: ''The Verdin's song of three clear notes all 

 on one key has rather a plaintive, resonant quality. One summer when 

 I lay ill for all the weeks of June in a sleeping porch in the midst of 

 many trees, those liquid bird-notes came to me across the orchard at 

 intervals throughout the day. The vital quality compelled attention 

 and puzzled me all that season, for I did not place the singer until the 

 next spring when I saw a tiny Verdin in the act of sending forth those 

 rich, full notes. The depth and carrying power of the tones are amazing 

 in such a small bird — so different from its quick, sharp call-note." 



Mrs. Wheelock (1904) writes: "The usual note of the adult Verdins 

 is a chickadee-like 'tsee-tu-tu' uttered while hunting, chickadee fashion, 

 among the terminal buds and under the leaves for their insect food, and 

 this the nestlings mimic in two syllables as soon as they leave the nest,— 

 'tsee-tee, tsee-tee.' It is a cry of hunger, and never fails to bring the 

 parent with food." 



Enemies. — Dr. Herbert Friedmann (1929) records the verdin as "a 

 poorly known victim of the Dwarf Cowbird." He found a cowbird's 

 egg in one nest, near Brownsville, Tex., and Roy W. Quillen wrote to 

 him that he has found "eggs of the Cowbird in a few nests of the 

 Verdin." In all cases the entrances to the nests were much enlarged, 

 and perhaps deserted. 



Field marks. — The verdin is a tiny bird, about the size of a bushtit 

 and much like it in general appearance and behavior, but it has a 

 shorter tail and other distinctive markings ; it is brownish gray above 

 and paler below; in the male the head is largely quite bright yellow 

 and in the female somewhat duller yellow; the lesser coverts on the 

 bend of the wing are bright, reddish chestnut, but these do not show 

 conspicuously unless the wings are partially open. Young birds in their 

 first plumage in summer have no yellow on the head and no chestnut 

 •in the wings. The verdin's voice is quite distinctive. 



Winter. — The verdin is a permanent resident in at least the warmer 

 portions of our southwestern deserts; it does not have to migrate, for 

 it finds sufHcient insect food in one form or another and lives well on 



