THE NUTHATCHES AND THE CHICKADEES 



665 



ing a few inches in front of his face in a vain endeavor to 

 discover the whereabouts of the other chickadee. 



The titmice, as the name is now restricted, differ from 

 the chickadees in having the crown feathers elongated in 

 the form of a crest. The tufted titmouse of the East and 

 the plain titmouse of California and Oregon are the best 

 known species, the other two being Mexican, and coming 

 into the United States only in Texas and Arizona. The 

 tufted and the plain titmice are uniformly gray, a trifle 

 larger than the chickadees, but with the same cute ways 



of flitting about 



the outer 

 branches, hang- 

 ing upside down, 

 peering under 

 leaves, and ex- 



l^ 



Like the chickadees, the nuthatches are largely 

 confined to the Northern Hemisphere. There are 

 about seventy species, of which only four are found 

 in North America. They are bluish-gray birds, 

 brighter than the chickadees, with white or rusty un- 

 deq:)arts, and with the top of the head brown or black. 

 The chief characteristic of the nuthatches is their habit 

 of climbing the trunk and larger branches of trees in 

 search of insects, upward or downward with equal fa- 

 cility. Unlike the woodpeckers, they do not use the 

 tail as a prop, nor are their feet arranged with two toes 

 forward and two backward. Instead they have the or- 

 dinary perching type of foot with three toes forward 

 and one backward. Both the toes and claws, how- 

 ever, are, of necessity, much better developed 

 than in ordinary perching birds. Certainly they 

 seem to have no difficulty in spiral- 

 ling about the trunks of trees and, in 

 fact, they have been known to sleep 

 hanging head downward, clinging to 



WILL IT DO? 



<^ 



E^ 



A prospective tenant inspecting a nesting box. 

 He seems to be somewhat in doubt. 



<^ 



HIDDEN TREASURES 

 Inside the knot-hole are seven young nut- 

 hatches, jealously guarded by the mother. 



amining the crevices of the bark. The 

 loud whistled call of the tufted tit- 

 mouse, peto-pcto-peto, is one of the 

 familiar sounds of the southern wood- 

 lands, while the tii-zvhit, ttt-tvhit, tu- 

 whit, of the plain titmouse is always associated with the live oaks of 

 California. 



The wren-tits and the bush-tits are browner birds than the chickadees, 

 the wren-tit being more or less wrenlike in its brown garb and its habit 

 of holding its tail tilted upwards. The bush-tits are mere sprites of bird 

 life, over half of their length of four inches being tail, so that their 

 bodies seem scarcely larger than the end of one's thumb. In habits they 

 resemble the chickadees with the exception that they build long purse- 

 like nests of soft materials, hanging them usually in thickets of ash and 

 willow. 



The verdin is quite similar to the bush-tit in size and habits, but its 

 whole head, neck and chest are bright yellow. It lives in the mesquite 

 valleys of the Rio Grande, the Colorado, the Gila and the Pecos Rivers 

 of the Southwest where, from the thorny bushes, it scolds and sputters 

 at every intruder. 



HE LIKES SUET 



Some good friend has remembered that this is the 



favorite dish of the red-breasted nuthatch. 



the bark beneath a jutting limb. Thev 

 are lively little creatures, always on the 

 move, peering at one from strange an- 

 gles, and their contented yank-yank adds 

 much to the cheerfulness of the northern 

 winter. The name nuthatch is supposed 

 to be a corruption of nut-hack, derived 

 from their universal habit of wedg- 

 ing the bark and then hacking 

 them open. The white - breasted 



