TUFTED TITMOUSE 403 



it is used by both sexes and, apparently, at almost any season of the year. 

 Also, like the chickadee, the birds respond to an imitation and come to 

 the imitator very readily. 



"The song is loud, clear, and lower-pitched than tlie cliickadee's 

 phoebe. It is also quite variable; I have a number of records and no 

 tv;o of them are alike. The song consists of a tv/o-note phrase, repeated 

 over and over three to eleven times, according to my records. The 

 two-note phrase is more frequently with the first note high and the 

 second low. The interval between may be one, one and one-half, or two 

 tones. The pitch of the notes varies in different songs, or different 

 individuals, from A" to A'", that is, between the highest two A's on 

 the piano. The majority of songs in my records are between E"' 

 and C"'. 



"Sometimes the two-note phrase sounds like pcfo, at other times like 

 wheedle or taydle. When the pitch goes up, instead of down, the phrase 

 is commonly written daytee ; the same pitches and pitch intervals are 

 common but it often sounds like toolcc, and sometimes the first note is 

 .short, and it is like tlcef or tlit. I have recorded all these variations in 

 tlie field, writing down what each particular song sounded like to me at 

 the time it was heard. 



"An occasional phrase slurs down, like tceoh, and there are rarely 

 phrases of three notes, such as wheedleoh, or of one note, whec, each 

 repeated a number of times. Sometimes a song begins or ends with 

 notes unlike the rest, as tidi, waytee, waytec, zvaytee, etc., or zvheedle, 

 wheedle, wheedle, zvhee, whee." 



Dr. Dickey (MS.) mentions a number of slightly different interpre- 

 tations of some of the above notes, and adds some that are quite differ- 

 ent, such as piper-tee, piper-tee, piper-tee; ah-peer, ah-peer; chee-chti, 

 chee-chep ; and wheep-did-er-ee, ending with purty-purty-purty. 



Nuttall (1832) devotes considerable space to the voice of the tufted 

 titmouse, and aptly remarks that "though his voice, on paper, may appear 

 to present only a list of quaint articulations, * * * yet the delicacy, 

 enerpy, pathos, and variety of his simple song, like many other things 

 in nature, are far beyond the feeble power of description." He mentions 

 a very lively and agreeable call of 'whip-toin-killy-killy; and then, "in 

 a lower, hoarser, harsh voice, and in a peevish tone, exactly like that of 

 the Jay and the Chickadee, ddy-ddy-ddy-ddy, and day-ddy-ddy-day-ddit ; 

 sometimes this loud note changed into one which became low and queru- 

 lous. On some of these occasions he also called 'tshica dee-dee. The 

 jarring call would then change occasionally into koi-tee-did did-dif-did." 



Several other observers have noted the resemblance of some of these 

 notes to the notes of the Carolina chickadee. The single whistled call 



