82 



PARID-^ : TITMICE. 



Family PARID^: Titmice. 



TUFTED TITMOUSE. 



LOPHOPHANES BICOLOR (Z.) Bf. 



Chars. Head crested. Upper parts, including the wings and tail, 

 leaden-gray. Sides of head and entire under parts dull whitish, 

 the sides washed with chestnut ; a black frontlet at base of the 

 crest. Bill plumbeous-blackish ; feet leaden-blue. The young 

 lack the black frontlet, and may have Httle of the chestnut wash 

 on the sides. Length, 6.00-6.50 ; extent, 9.75-10.75 ; wing, 3.00- 

 3.25 ; tail about the same ; bill, 0.45 ; tarsus, 0.75. 



The case of the Tufted Titmouse in New England 

 is closely coincident with that of the Blue-gray Gnat- 

 catcher. The bird is properly limited in its northward 



extension by the Carolinian 

 Fauna, and hence occurs 

 only in southern New Eng- 

 land, as a rare and perhaps 

 casual summer visitor. It 

 was long ago accredited to 

 New Hampshire by Belknap 

 (Hist. N. H., iii, 1792, p. 

 173), and Audubon speaks 

 of its occurrence in Nova 

 Scotia (Orn. Biog., v, p. 

 472). Linsley enumerates it 

 among the birds of Connec- 

 ticut (Am. Jour. Sci., xliv, 

 1843, p. 255) ; on the strength of which, as well as 



Fig. 17. — Head of Tufted Tit- 

 MOUSB. (Natural size.) 



