PARID.E — THE TITMICE. 223 



four to six eggs. These he describes as liaviiig, wlien fresh, a groimd-cohjr 

 of pale Lhie, dashed all over witli small black spots. 



Dr. Kennerly, in his Eeport on the Birds of the Mexican Boundary Survey, 

 states that he met with this species in the vicinity of the Rio Grande. They 

 were very wild, flew rapidly, and to quite a distance before they alighted. 

 They seemed to frequent the low mezquite-bushes on the hillsides. 



]\Ir. Xantus found this species, when he first arrived at San Lucas, on the 

 4th of April, with young birds already fully fledged, althougli others were 

 still breeding and continued to breed until the middle of July. Two fifths 

 of all the eggs he collected that season, he writes, were of this species. Tliis 

 may, however, have been in part owing to the conspicuous prominence of 

 their nests, as well as to their abundance. Xantus found the nest in va- 

 rious positions. In one instance it was suspended from a leafless branch 

 not three feet from the ground, with its entrance nearly to the ground. In 

 another instance it was on an acacia twenty feet from the ground. For 

 the most part they are hung from low acacia-trees, on the extreme outer 

 branches. In all cases the entrance to the nest was from the lower end, or 

 towards the ground. 



Dr. J. G. Cooper, in his History of the Birds of California, speaks of find- 

 ing a large number of this beautiful little bird during the whole winter fre- 

 quenting the thickets of algarobia and other shrul)S, and with habits inter- 

 mediate between those of Titmice and Warblers, corresponding with their 

 intermediate form. Their song resembles that of the Chickadee, and they 

 also uttered a loud cry, as they sat on high twigs, with a triple lisping note 

 resembling tzee-tee-tee. Dr. Cooper found a pair building on the 10th of 

 March. They first formed a wall, nearly spherical in outline, of the thorny 

 twigs of the algarobia, in which tree the nest was usually built. They then 

 lined it with softer twigs, leaves, the down of plants, and feathers. They 

 covered the outside with thorns, until it became a mass as large as a man's 

 head, or nine inches by five and a half on the outside. The cavity is four 

 and a half inches by two, with an opening on one side just large enough for 

 the bird to enter. On the 27th of March, Dr. Cooper found the first nest 

 containing eggs. These were in all instances four in number, pale blue, 

 with numerous small brown spots, chiefly near the larger end, though some 

 had very 'few spots and were paler. Their size he gives as .60 by .44 of an 

 inch. In one nest, which he closely observed, the eggs were hatched after 

 about ten days' incubation, and in two weeks more the young were ready to 

 leave their nest. 



Subfamily SITTING. 



Tlie characters of the Sitti7ice are expressed with suflicient detail on page 

 86. The section is represented in America by a single genus, confined 

 mainly to the northern portion. 

 15 



