The Tufted Titmouse 283 



The varied notes and tones of the Titmouse easily interpret its chang- 

 ing moods, but an additional clue to its state of mind is given by its use 

 of its crest. For, though it generally deserves the 

 name sometimes given "Top-knot Bird" when pre- An 

 occupied in hunting for its dinner, or forcing itself 

 to brave danger, it may change its expression entirely by flattening its 

 crest until, except for a point at the back of its head, it is almost as 

 round-headed as a Chickadee. 



Like Emerson's Chickadee, the Tom-tit 



"Shows feats of his gymnastic play, 

 Head downward, clinging to the spray." 



but it is dinner rather than gymnastics that he is thinking of. Leaves 

 and cracks and crannies of bark he is examining with microscopic care 

 for insects or their eggs or larvae. 



When not hunting insect-eggs like a Chickadee, the Tom-tit may be 

 cracking nuts like a Blue Jay, hammering away at one held firmly under 

 his foot. Beechnuts, hazelnuts, chinquapins, or even acorns, he accepts 

 cheerfully. Wild berries, such as those of dogwood 

 and Virginia creeper, are also taken in their turn ; and, 

 in their proper season, grasshoppers, beetles, cutworms 

 and caterpillars form a large part of his diet. Boll-weevils and scale- 

 insects, two of the worst insect pests of the country, are sometimes 

 eaten by him; while his nearest relatives in California and the South- 

 west take an active part in destroying these dangerous enemies of man. 

 The Titmice do good by eating the insects, and also by carrying them to 

 their voracious young in the nest. 



The nest of the Tom-tit, like that of the Chickadee, is almost always 

 in a ready-made hollow, very often in a deserted Woodpecker's nest, 

 especially in that of the Red-bellied Woodpecker. On rare occasions the 

 Tom-tit is said to excavate its own nest. 



To line the hollows the birds carry in a variety of materials. For foun- 

 dation they sometimes use grasses, strips of bark and 

 Spanish moss, filling in with a lining of soft materials jrn !^ lfl * 



such as feathers and hair. Where do they get these 

 soft furnishings? That is one of the many interesting things to find out. 

 A hair-gatherer was once seen, as the observer supposed, trying to drive 

 off a red squirrel. But field-glasses told a different story. The squirrel 

 lay resting on a branch and the Titmouse "would approach cautiously 

 from behind and catch at its tail." The industrious bird kept doing 

 this until it "had collected quite a mouthful of the hairs, with which it 

 flew off to a hole nearby, where it was deposited !'' 



The observer does not tell us whether the squirrel was asleep or 

 whether it remonstrated with its small neighbor ; but the incident shows 

 that many surprising things are to be seen and heard in the woods. An- 

 other case is recorded of one of these Titmice getting hairs from a living 

 dog; and a second of a young lady who was astonished to find one of 



