2l8 



BIRDS OF AMERICA 



Mi 



Drawing by R I Brasher 



WREN-TIT (i nat. size) 

 Prudent to the point of secretiveness 



s\vall(.nvcd the bite and went hunting through an 

 adjoining bush to show us that he was merely 

 skirmishing to appease his own appetite and that 

 he had neither nest nor children. 



\Mien we lirst found the X'crdin's nest, the 

 doorway was a round hole in the side. By get- 

 ting the light just right, we could look inside. A 

 week later when we visited the same home, we 

 were surprised not to see the door at all. The 

 birds evidently thought we had been too curious, 

 so they built a little roof and porch, sloping it 

 out and straight down, so that I had to get down 

 on my hands and knees to look up to find the 

 doorway, for the entrance was now in 'the 

 bottom. 



The Verdin makes u:;e of his home not onlv 

 during the summer to raise a family, but he often 

 uses it in winter as a sleeping place. Many birds 

 abandon the nest as soon as the children leave 

 home and it then falls to ruin. Not so with the 

 Verdin ; he keeps his in repair. He is such a 

 tiny fellow, he needs a protected place for sleep. 

 So he has learned to use his own roof during the 

 winter season. William L. Finley, 



WREN-TITS 



Order Passcrcs; suborder Oscincs; family Chaiitccidce 



LTHOUGH the characters of the single genus which constitutes the family 

 of Wren-Tits are in the main intermediate between those of the Titmice 

 family and those of the Wren family, they are not all so, and there can be 

 no question, says Robert Ridgway, that it is an isolated type and should 

 be regarded as a distinct family. 



The chief anatomical characteristics of the Wren-Tits are: bill much 

 shorter than the head, compressed, and strongly curved above; well- 

 developed bristles at the corners of the mouth; the feathers of the neck and 

 chin terminated by distinct though fine bristles ; wings rather short and much 

 rounded; tail, much longer than wing, graduated for nearly one half its 

 length, the feathers rather narrow, but gradually widening to the tip, which 

 They are found in the Pacific coast district from Oregon south to northern 



is rounded 



Lower California and east to the interior of California. 



WREN-TIT 

 Chamaea fasciata fasciata ( Gambel) 



A. O. U. \umber 742 



General Description. — Length, 7 inches. Upper 

 parts, brownish-ohve ; under parts, pale huffy-cinnamon. 



Color. — Above, plain brownish-olive, the crown, 

 hindneck, wing and tail feathers slightly grayer, sides 

 of head and neck, paler grayish-olive than crown and 

 hindneck; under parts, pale bufFy-cinnainon deepening 

 into drab or buffy-drab on sides, flanks, and under tail- 

 coverts ; iris, white. 



Nest and Eggs. — Nest : In low bushes, seldom 

 more than 4 feet up. compactly put together witli tliick 

 walls; constructed of fine strips of hark, roots, grasses, 

 and lined with horse hair or cattle hair. Eggs : 3 to 5, 

 usually 4. pale bluish-green. 



Distribution, — The eastern and southern shores 

 of San Francisco Bay and in the adjacent Santa 

 Clara Vallev. 



