SONG-BIRDS. Titmouse 



FAMILY PARID^E: NUTHATCHES AND TITMICE. 



SUB-FAMILY PARING : TITMICE. 

 Tufted Titmouse: Parus bicolor. 



Length : 6-6.50 inches. 



Male and Female : Crested, with black spot on brow at base of crest. 



Above ash-gray, wings and tail darker. Sides of head dull 



white. Under parts whitish with brownish wash on sides. 



Bill lead-black, feet lead-colour. 

 Song: A persistent whistle, which Mr. Nehrling translates as " Hee- 



dle-dee-dle-dee-dle-dee," and at other times " Peto-peto-peto- 



day tee-day tee ! " 

 Season : Straggling to southern New England in early April or May 



in company with many of the Warblers. 

 Breeds : In all parts of range. 

 Nest : Sometimes in bird-boxes, otherwise in the abandoned holes of 



Woodpeckers, etc., lined with hair and feathers. 

 Eggs : 6-8, white, spotted with reddish-brown and lilac. 

 Eange: Eastern United States to the Plains, but rare towards the 



northern border, being a straggler merely to southern New 



England. 



The Tufted Titmouse is quite rare here, but is a summer 

 and, perhaps, winter resident in southern New York ; and 

 whenever it is seen, it is sure to be recognized. 



In shape it has all the jaunty pertness of the Blue Jay, 

 but with an added air of confidence and sociability. Dur- 

 ing the winter they travel about in flocks searching for food, 

 and when insects fail they content themselves with nuts 

 and hard seeds which crack readily, after the fashion of the 

 Nuthatches. They pair in April, and Mr. Nehrling says 

 that they grow silent as the nesting time approaches, and 

 very stealthy in their movements ; a pair occupied a Blue- 

 bird house, which he had placed on the edge of the woods 

 near his home in Texas, and then shifted to a Wren box to 

 raise the second brood. 



Montague Chamberlain, who heard these Titmice singing 



in the South in January, thinks that their song sometimes 



takes the high key of the Baltimore Oriole, and that among 



other colloquial expressions they frequently said, " Whip- 



71 



