24 Birds Every Child Should Know 



drab ; but the little titmouse, who is the size of 

 an English sparrow, may be named at once by 

 the gray pointed crest that makes him look so 

 pert and jaunty. When he hangs head down- 

 ward from the trapeze on the oak tree, this 

 little gray acrobat's peaked cap seems to be 

 falling off; whereas the black skull cap on the 

 smaller chickadee fits close to his head no 

 matter how much he turns over the bar and 

 dangles. 



Neither one of these cousins is a carpenter 

 like the woodpecker. The titmouse has a short, 

 stout bill without a chisel on it, which is why 

 it cannot chip out a hole for a nest in a tree 

 trunk or old stump unless the wood is much 

 decayed. You see why these birds are so 

 pleased to find a deserted woodpecker's hole. 

 Not alone are they saved the trouble of making 

 one, but a deep tunnel in a tree-trunk means 

 security for their babies against hawks, crows, 

 jays, and other foes, as well as against wind and 

 rain. 



When you find a flock of either chickadees 

 or titmice, you may be sure it is made up chiefly, 

 if not entirely, of the birds of one or two broods 

 of the same parents. Their families are usually 

 large and the members devoted to one another. 

 Titmice nest in April so that you cannot tell the 

 brothers and sisters from the father and mother 

 when the troupe of acrobats leave the woods in 



