TUFTED TITMOUSE. 1 45 



iris, and which our bird had probably heard and mimicked in its 

 distant cUme. 



The Peto, besides insects, like the Jay, to which he is allied, 

 chops up acorns, cracks nuts and hard and shelly seeds to get 

 at their contents, holding them meanwhile in his feet. He 

 also searches and pecks decayed trees and their bark with con- 

 siderable energy and industry in quest of larvae ; he often also 

 enters into hollow trunks, prying after the same objects. In 

 these holes they commonly roost in winter, and occupy the 

 same secure situations, or the holes of the small Woodpecker, 

 for depositing and hatching their eggs, which takes place early 

 in April or in May, according to the different parts of the 

 Union they happen to inhabit. Sometimes they dig out a 

 cavity for themselves with much labor, and always line the 

 hollow with a variety of warm materials. Their eggs, about six 

 to eight, are white with a few small specks of brownish red near 

 the larger end. The whole family, young and old, may be seen 

 hunting together throughout the summer and winter, and keep- 

 ing up a continued mutual chatter. 



According to the observations of Wilson it soon becomes 

 familiar in confinement, and readily makes its way out of a 

 wicker cage by repeated blows at the twigs. It may be fed 

 on hemp-seed, cherry-stones, apple- pippins, and hickory nuts, 

 broken and thrown in to it. In its natural state, like the rest 

 of its vicious congeners, it sometimes destroys small birds by 

 blows on the skull. 



This species belongs to the Carolinian faunal area, and occurs 

 regularly only from about the 40th parallel southward ; north of 

 that it is but an accidental straggler. A few examples have been 

 taken in New England, mostly in Connecticut. 



VOL. I. — 10 



