rARTD.E — TITE TITMICK. 1Q3 



and resident, Immiiu' iu winter one of the most comninn, as well jis one of 

 the most tiimiliar l»inls, inhaliiting nil localities, giving' jneferenee noithtr 

 to rwamjw woo<ls nor to do^jr-yards, tor it is as often seen in one phiee as 

 another. It is never jire^nirious, though many may often Ix; seen or iieard at 

 the same moment, it i>e«^ins incuUition early in April, genenilly selecting; 

 the wihl pliMi and red-hutl trees in tlie woods. This sjKH'ies very often 

 construets its own nestinj^i-places, and the soft wood of tliese trees is vmy 

 easily excavated. The excavation is j^enerally made in a horiz(»ntal dead 

 limb, with the oi>enin«; on the under side ; this is neat and rei^'ular, and as 

 elaborate as those of any of the woodpeckers. Sometimes, however, a 

 natund cavity is selected, fre<|uently in a jjrost rate stump or " snaj:;" The 

 nest is almost always a very elaborate structure, being a strong compact cup 

 or l)ed of "felt," whose main material is rabbit-fur and cow-hair. 



In its habits it seems to resemble more closely the /'. jmlnstris of EuroiHi 

 than the utricapilhia, Injing generally found only in the immediate vicinity 

 of ponds and tleep, marshy, moist woods. It is Jilso rjirely found (»ther 

 than singly or in pairs, the parent birds, unlike most of this family, sepamt- 

 ing from their young soon after the latter are able to provide for themselves. 

 It rarely or never moves in Hocks. 



Their notes are said to be less sonorous and less frequent than those of our 

 Black-capped Titmouse. In the winter a portion retire from the coast in 

 South Carolina into the interior of the State and into Florida, where Mr. 

 Audubon found them, in the winter of I80I and 1832, much more abun- 

 dant than he had ever seen them elsewhere. He found them breeding as 

 early as February, occasionally ii: the nests deserted by the IJrown-headeil 

 Nuthatch. A nest obtained by Dr. liachman from a hollow stump, about 

 four feet from the ground, was in form cup-shaped, measuring two inches 

 internally in diameter at the mouth, and three externally, with a dej)th 

 of two inches. It was constructed of cotton, tine wool, a few fibres of 

 plants, and so elaborately felted together as to be of uniform thickness 

 throughout. 



Mr. Audubon was in error in regard to the eggs, which he describes as 

 pure white. Their ground-color is of pure crystalline whiteness, but they 

 are freely and boldly marked all over wlch deep reddish-brown and red s|xjts. 

 These, so tar as we have compared the eggs, ai*e larger, more numerous, and 

 more deeply marked than are any eggs of the atricajjillus we have ever met 

 with. 



Acconling to the observations of the late Dr. Alexander Gerhardt of 

 WhitHeld County, Georgia, these birds usually breed in holes that have 

 l)een previously dug out by the Picua 2)uhesceih% or in decaying stumps not 

 more than five or six feet from the ground. He never met with its nest in 

 living trees. The eggs are from five to seven in number, and are usually 

 dej)osited in Georgia from the 10th to the last of April. 



The eggs of this species are slightly larger than those of the ati^icapillvSy 



