398 BULLETIN 191, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Other somewhat similar cases have been reported, but the above will 

 suffice to ilhistrate this strange habit. 



Eggs. — Four to eight eggs may be found in the nest of the tufted 

 titmouse, but oftener there are either five or six. The eggs vary from 

 ovate (commonly) to elongate-ovate, and tliere is practically no gloss. 

 The ground color is usually pure white, but often creamy white, or 

 rarely pale "cream color." They are generally more or less evenly 

 speckled all over the entire surface v*'ith very small spots or fine dots; 

 often these markings are thickest at the larger end, where they are 

 sometimes concentrated into a wreath ; rarely this concentration is at the 

 small end. The markings are in various browns, "hazel," "cinnamon- 

 rufous," "vinaceous-rufous," "burnt sienna," or "chestnut" ; some eggs 

 have a few underlying shell markings of "lilac-gray" or "drab-gray." 

 The measurements of 50 eggs average 18.4 by 14.1 millimeters; the eggs 

 showing the four extremes measure 20.7 by 13.5, 18.5 by 14.7, 16.8 

 by 14.0, and 17.0 by 12.7 millimeters. 



Young. — Dr. Dickey (MS.) tells me that in several nests that he 

 watched the period of incubation proved to be "exactly 12 days" ; and 

 he says that young remain in the cavity 15 or 16 days. A young bird, 

 4 days old, had a light salmon-pink body, with eyes only partly open, 

 and was naked except for "feather tufts of dusky grey down" on the 

 top of the head, at the base of the skull and in the middle of the back. 

 When 6 days old, the "body had blue-gray down and rows of con- 

 spicuous slate-blue pin-feather shafts" ; the eyes were now open. Two 

 days later, "the gray down was falling away from head and sides ; the 

 back mouse-gray; the flanks under back of wings tinged with light 

 brown ; pin-feather scabbards of wings not entirely unsheathed, but fast 

 disintegrating." When ten days old, the young were well feathered and 

 closely resembled the adults, but they remained in the nest five days 

 more. 



Mrs. Margaret Morse Nice (1931) writes: "In the Wichita Reserve 

 June 6, 1926, we discovered we had fastened our tent to a black jack 

 in a cavity of which five fully feathered titmice were housed ; happily 

 tlie parents accepted the situation with equanimity. I watched the 

 nest from 2 to 4 p.m. the first day, from 10:40 to 12:10 the next. 

 Despite the hot weather mother Tit brooded 3 and 8 minutes the fi_rst 

 day, 8 and 15 the next, father in the meantime giving the food he 

 brought to her. Both birds kept their crests depressed, both often 

 twitched their wings — the female more than her mate — and both used 

 a great variety of notes. During the first two hours 18 meals were 

 given, during the last hour and a half, seven." 



I cannot find it definitely §0 stated, but apparently incubating and 



