The Tufted Titmouse {Baeolophiis bicolor) 

 By \V. Leon Dawson 



Description. — Adult: Above ashy K^'iy. "Ici'iicst on to]) of head; forehead 

 sooty black ; a conspicuous crest ; sides of head and below ashy white, stronply 

 washed with rusty on sides and flanks; bill plunibeous-black ; feet plumbeous. In 

 winter: The back and. usually, edgings of wing and tail more or less tinged with 

 olive; the lower parts tinged with brownish, especially on brest. Imwature: 

 Less distinctly black on forehead ; not so rusty on sides ; bill light, except along 

 culmen. Length. 5.75-6.50 (14r,.l-165.1) : wing 3.13 (79.5); tail 2.67 (67.8); 

 bill .43 (10.9). 



Reco(jnition Marks. — Sjjarrow size; black forehead and a-^hy bhu- crest; 

 plain coloration in ash, whitish, and rusty. 



Xcst. in a hole in stump, beech-stub, or tree, of leaves, bark, corn-pitch and 

 trash, lined with hair or feathers. Ef/gs, 5-H, white or creamy-white, evenly 

 spotted and speckled with reddish brown. Average size. .71 x .55 (18. x 14.). 



General Range. — Eastern I'nitcd States to the Plains, north to northern 

 Xew Jersey and southern Iowa ; casual in southern Xew England. Resident 

 throughout its breeding range. 



"I don't know for the life of me what the fuss is all about, but I know 

 there is the greatest commotion going on right under my nose. On a single 

 branch of a scraggly hillside tree — said branch being horizontal, twelve feet 

 long, and fifteen feet above the ground — there were gathered at practically one 

 and the same time the following birds: Tufted Tits, three to six, Blackcapped 

 Chickadees, three or four, Carolina Wrens, three. Downy Woodpeckers, three, 

 Wood Pewees. two or three, one Rey-eyed Vireo, one Yellow Warbler, one 

 Phoebe, an Indigo Bunting, a Redstart, one very small Crested Flycatcher and 

 several English Sparrows — some twenty or more birds of at least twelve species 

 — each vociferating, scolding, denouncing or at least anxiously inquiring, and 

 many, for the lack of better employment, fighting withal. It only lasted half a 

 minute after I arrived, but it was a stirring time while it was on. and I am all 

 a-tremble with excitement myself. What does it all mean, anyway? The Tufted 

 Titmice, I think, started the hubbub ; but w'hether one of their youngsters was 

 choking on a June bug. or had up and slapped its mother, I cannot tell." So 

 runs the writer's note-book under date of June 17, 1902, in recording one of the 

 most intense little episodes of bird life ever witnessed. It was just like those 

 Titmice, anyway — inquisitive, irascible, hysterical, always kicking up a shindy 

 among the birds. In some of their antics they are like spoiled children, but their 

 very sauciness is their salvation. 



The Titmouse is the major domo of the winter bird troop. His militar>' crest 

 marks him out for such an ofifice. and his restless way of fussing up and down the 

 line gives him a show of authority over the Nuthatches, Creepers, Woodpeckers, 

 Chickadees, and Cardinals, which compose that motely company. He is. indeed, 



891 



