392 Proceedings of Indiana Academy of Science. 
224. SITTA CANADENSIS Linnieus. RED-BREASTED NUTHATCH. (728) 
Spring and fall visitant and probably rare summer resident. 
Carroll County: In August, 1878, three or four young just able to fly, 
seen at a small pond on the home farm; one was collected. May 3, 1883, 
one seen and heard near same place; May 7, 1885, a pair collected near the 
Leonard mill on Deer Creek, east of Camden. 
Vigo County: A female collected at Sand Hill, May 10, 1890. 
Monroe County: One collected on Thanksgiving Day, 1882, near Bloom- 
ington. One got in Turner’s grove, February 10, 1883. A pair or more 
might have been seen in this grove at any time in the winter of 1882-3. 
225, BaAOLOPHUS BICOLOR (Linnzeus). TUFTED TITMOUSE. (7381) 
A common permanent resident. Of all the birds that remain with us 
during the cold, blustery days of winter, connecting that cheerless season 
of ice and sleet and snow with summer's sunshine and flowers, perhaps the 
most Common, as well as the best known, is the Tufted Titmouse. Everyone 
knows this saucy, plain-colored little bird. He is not at all a gaudy bird, 
but quite Quakerish in his plain suit of leaden gray. He is a hardy bird, 
enduring, indeed, seeming to enjoy, the rigors of our severest winters with- 
out any desire to plume his wing for that distant flight which takes from 
us most of our musical summer birds when the autumn days come on. No! 
little cares he if the storms do come, the wind howl, the leaves fall, and the 
temperature go to zero and below, for here he stays and seems really to 
enjoy the cold. He may be seen on almost any day in the old apple trees 
near the house, about the woodpile. or in the depths of the forest, flitting 
about in that saucy, bravado-like way of his, gleaning from the crevices of 
the bark and the freshly split wood his daily food, the while keeping up an 
almost incessant whistling or scolding. should you intrude too closely upon 
his hunting ground. He has an omnivorous taste, feeding upon almost any- 
thing and everything, animal or yegetable, and thus is he able to procure 
food of some kind or other at any season of the year. 
The mating season begins early in April. The nests are in deserted wood- 
pecker holes or natural cavities in trees or old dead stubs in deep or open 
woods, or in the apple or other trees about the house. The eggs are usually 
five to eight in number and are pure white or sometimes light cream ground- 
color, profusely speckled with reddish-brown. 
These birds will sometimes nest in boxes put up for the purpose and may 
thus be brought and kept about the house during the nesting season. 
Carroll County: 1877-1879, noted often. January 22, 1879, one collected. 
Miss Evermann noted a few near Burlington January 5, 1907, and says they 
ean be seen almost any time of the year near her house; October 28, two 
heard; December 16, one seen in porch and on grape arbor. January 1, 
1908, noted in the woods; 2d, one seen in lilac bush near house; Mareh 1, 
two seen in garden; they have been about the house all winter: one flew 
into the porch after some wahoo berries that were hanging on the wall. 
Vigo County: Permanent resident; seen often. April 19, 1888, a male 
collected; 30th, a male obtained near the fair grounds. April 24, 1890, a 
female secured at Sand Hill. 
Monroe County: Quite as common and well known as in the other coun- 
ties. 
