Tirmice AND NuTHATCHES. (FAMILY PARIDZ.) 
Comparing the Titmice with the Nuthatches, the 
former may be described as short-billed birds with long 
tails who do not creep, the latter as long-billed birds 
with short tails who do creep. The two groups are, in 
fact, quite distinct, and by some systematists are placed 
in separate families. 
The Titmice number some seventy-five species, four 
of which are found in eastern North America, The 
Chickadee, commonest and most generally distrib- 
Porus atricapillus. uted is the Black-capped Chickadee, 
Plate LXX. which is found from Labrador to Mary- 
land and in the Alleghanies southward to North Carolina. 
Farther south it is replaced by the closely allied Carolina 
Chickadee. . | 
Throughout the greater part of its range the Chickadee 
is found at all seasons, but it is less common in the middle 
and southern New England States in summer than in win- 
ter, and is most numerous during its migration in October. 
It is with winter that these merry little black and 
white midgets are generally associated. Their tameness, 
quaint notes, and friendly ways make them unusually com- 
panionable birds; one need not lack for society when 
Chickadees are to be found. Many of their notes are 
especially conversational in character, and in addition to 
the familiar chickadee call, they have a high, sweet, 
plaintive two- or three-noted whistle. 
The Chickadee nests about the middle of May, select- 
ing some suitable cavity or making one for himself in a. 
decayed trunk or limb and lining it with moss, plant- 
down, and feathers. The eggs, five to eight in number, 
are white, spotted and speckled, chiefly at the larger end, 
with cinnamon or reddish brown. 
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