PARIDJ2 — THE TITMICE. 



95 



Sides dark rusty-brown. Wing, 2.45 ; tail, 2.45 ; tarsus, .62 ; middle 



toe, .35; graduation of tail, .30. (17,101, Halifax, N. S.) Hah. Arctic 



America; south to noi'thern boundary of the United States (except to 



westward). 



7. P. sibiricus.' Side of neck white. Back, etc., rusty ochraceous- 



gray. Sides rusty ochraceous. Wing, 2.70 ; tail, 2.80 ; tarsus, .GO ; 



middle toe, .36 ; graduation of tail, .30. Hah. Europe. 



Parus raontanus, Gambel. 



MOUNTAIN CHICKADEE: WHITE-BKOWED CHICKADEE. 



Parus montanus, -Gambel, Pr. A. N. S. Phila. April, 1843, 259 ; Journ. A. N. Sc. 2a 

 Series, I, 1847, 35, pi. viii, f. 1. — Baird, B. N. A. 1858, 394 ; Review Am. B. I, 1864, 

 82. — Elliot, Illust. — Cooper, Birds Cal. 1, 46. 



Sp. Char. Head and neck above, with under part of head and throat, glossy black ; 

 forehead, stripe above the eye and band below it, involving the auriculars, white. These 

 stripes embracing between them a black band through the eye and confluent with the black 

 of the head. Above ashy; beneath similar, but paler; the upper part of breast aiad middle 

 line of belly white. Length about 5 inches ; wing, 2.60 ; tail, 2.40. 



Hab. Mountain region of Middle and Western United States. 



Habits. The Mountain Chickadee was first met with by Dr. Gambel in 

 journeying westward from Santa Fe, in New Mexico, and from thence was 

 ibund in all the ranges of the Eocky 

 Mountains nearly to California. Its 

 notes and habits are said to closely 

 resemble those of the common Chick- 

 adee, but weaker and more varied. It 

 keeps more in low bushes, where it 

 moves from branch to branch with 

 untiring activity, searching eacli mi- 

 nutely for small insects. It also fre- 

 quently descends to tlie ground to 

 pick up small seeds. While thus oc- 

 cupied it will occasionally stop, look 

 round, and, uttering a slender tc-de-dc, and then its usual note, to-dc-dc-dait, 

 will fly to another bush. 



On the Eio Colorado they kept chiefly among the cotton-wood trees that 

 grew along its banks, and its familiar notes were almost the only sounds 

 heard. They were observed in large and busy flocks along the smaller 

 streams in company with the Least Tit and the RcguJi. Dr. Gambel did 

 not find them, however, so aljundant on the California sides of the ridge, 

 where other species took their place. 



Dr. Heermann found this Titmouse abundant amono- the mountains sur- 



Parus atricapiUus. 



1 Parus sibiricus, Gmel. S. N. 1788, p. 1013. 



