226 Bird- Lore 



home. After a hunt for food and their hunger is satisfied, they sit about in some 

 tree resting and preening themselves, and their continual twittering gives the 

 impression of a real bird concert. Bush-tits are great talkers. But I have never 

 seen a flock stop for a rest. Their appetites never seem satisfied. A flock forms 

 a continual moving excursion. A few always take the lead, bobbing along in 

 tippling flight from tree to tree. Others follow rapidly, and, when they 

 take possession of a bush, it looks as if the whole thing had suddenly taken 

 wings. 



The Bush-tit has no distinctive color-marks, such as the white tail feathers 

 in the Junco; but he has a series of call-notes that are of great importance in 

 keeping each member of the flock informed as to where the others are. In Volume 

 V, No. 4, of 'The Condor,' Mr. Joseph Grinnell has a very interesting article 

 on the call-notes of the Bush-tit. In this article he notes a very characteristic 

 habit of the Bush-tit that I have observed on several different occasions. 



I stood, one day, in an alder copse watching a flock of Bush-tits that were 

 hunting through the branches. It was a family of young birds. Each had learned 

 to keep up a constant tsre-e, tsre-e! Isit! tsre! as if continually 

 S*'* saying something. But this gossip was not so much for the sake 



Protection ^^ ^^^ conversation as to keep the whole flock constantly together. 



While I was watching, three or four of the midgets were within a few feet of me. 

 One of the birds in the next tree began a shrill quavering whistle, and instantly 

 it was taken up by every one of the band. The two birds near me, as well as every 

 one of the others, rose to their perches. Had I not known, I couldn't have 

 told just where the whistle was coming from; it sounded so scattering, like the 

 elusive, grating call of the cicada. Then I saw a Hawk sweeping slowly over- 

 head, and the confusing chorus lasted as long as the Hawk was in sight; nor did 

 one of the little Bush-tits seem to move a feather, but just sit and trill in perfect 

 unison. It served as a unique method of protection: the whole flock had learned 

 to act as a unit. It would have been hard for an enemy to tell where a single bird 

 was, the alarm note was so deceiving, the birds so motionless, and their clothing 

 harmonized so perfectly with the foliage. 



There are several varieties of Bush-tits, living from Washington down to 

 western Texas. All are very much alike, uniform gray or brownish in color, 

 darker above and lighter below, except the species that one may 

 Range see in the mountainous regions of western Texas and northern 



Mexico. In this locality, the Bush-tit has a black patch on 

 the side of its head. Through the western part of Oregon and Washington, the 

 Bush-tit often nests in willows, hemlocks and hazels, and the site selected is 

 usually from six to eight feet from the ground. In California, the oaks are favor- 

 ite nesting-places. Here the Bush-tit builds largely of lichens, plant fibers and 

 feathers. 



The Bush-tit is a master-builder among JMrds, for he builds a real h\X(\ man- 

 sion. I once watched a ])air of these tiny creatures lay the foundation for a 



