ranging from the Rocky Mountains to the Atlantic Ocean in one direction and 

 from southern New England and Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico in the other. 

 In winter it extends beyond our southern borders into Guatemala and Honduras. 



The Tufted Titmouse {Baeoiopkus bkoior) 



By W. W. Woollen 



The subfamily Parinse, of which the tufted titmouse is a member, contains 

 about seventy-five species. Of these thirteen belong to North America. The 

 range of the tufted titmouse extends throughout the eastern United States, north 

 to the Connecticut valley and southern Michigan and west to central Nebraska 

 and Texas. Comparatively few of them are found in New England, and this 

 perhaps accounts for the fact that not much has been written about them in the 

 •east- In some of the books no mention is made of them. They are irregular 

 migrants. Most of them remain throughout the year when they have taken up 

 their abode. They mate in April and May and breed until midsummer. They 

 nest in woodpecker and knot holes and other cavities, generally five to thirty feet 

 from the ground. 



Some of the names of the tufted titmouse are crested titmouse, crested tom- 

 tit, Peter-peter, and sugar bird. The adult male and female are alike in size, 

 contour, color and appearance. Both have conspicuous crests and a bill which is 

 black ; tongue very short, truncate and ending with three or four sharp points ; 

 eye dark hazel ; lores white ; gray above, whitish below with sides of reddish 

 brown; wing feathers relieved with dusky on their inner vanes ; tail a little forked, 

 considerably concave below, and of the same color as the back. 



Their food consists entirely of insects, their eggs and larvae, and for this 

 reason they are of our most useful birds. At Somerleaze they have shown them- 

 selves to be very busy workers in our orchard and I have been much interested in 

 watching them going over our elms for insects and worms on the leaves. In 

 doing this they catch a limb with their feet and swing with their heads downward, 

 so as to be able to inspect the under side of the leaves. One Sunday afternoon 

 in 1900 a pair of them brought their young ones to the trees on our front lawn 

 and this gave me an excellent opportunity to observe them from the veranda with 

 a glass. The young ones seemed larger than their parents, and such voracious 

 appetites as they did have ! The parents worked faithfully all that afternoon, 

 and did nothing but feed their hungry progeny. One of the trees was the very 

 large wild cherry and in it was a nest of tent caterpillars. The titmice discovered 

 it, attacked it, and destroyed every caterpillar in it. It was interesting to watch 

 them do it. They would fly to the nest, catch a caterpillar and fly with it to a 

 limb close by, mascerate it, and then fly to one of their young and give the cater- 

 pillar to it. During that afternoon I think they went over every tree on the 



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