112 CHARACTERISTICS OF THE PARING 



SUBFAMILY PAEINJE : TRUE TITMICE 



The familiar Chickadee, so called from its quaint notes, which 

 are thought to resemble the syllables chick'-a-dee, stands as a 

 typical representative of this group. The accredited species, 

 to the number of about seventy, are, with few exceptions, 

 confined to the northern hemisphere, and abound in most parts 

 of Europe, Asia and North America. A strong family like- 

 ness runs through the whole of them, and their habits and 

 manners in most respects are much the same. The principal 

 exception to this statement is found in the methods of nidi fication, 

 which vary greatly some species building in holes of trees, 

 which they excavate like woodpeckers, while others construct 

 immense purse-like pensile nests of grasses or mosses. They 

 are for the most part hardy birds, capable y of enduring great 

 cold with impunity 5 this circumstance, which, with their omniv- 

 orous tastes, renders procuring of food of one kind or another 

 easy at all seasons, causes them to be non-migratory, or only 

 imperfectly so. Their musical ability is decidedly of a low- 

 order, though they have a great variety of 'hearty and not dis- 

 pleasing notes. They are very active, restless, energetic and 

 industrious birds, withal turbulent, self asserting, and in the 

 presence of man heedless to a degree. Among their own kind, 

 they are sociable, in some cases almost gregarious, but are 

 accused of being tyrannical and cruel, like Jays, toward weaker 

 or more defenseless species. They are very prolific, not only lay- 

 ing a large clutch of eggs, but often rearing more than one brood 

 annually; as a consequence, they are usually abundant wher- 

 ever found at all. They are chiefly confined to wooded country j 

 the boreal species of America, like Parus liudsonicus, haunt 

 the coniferous forests ; others, for the most part, prefer thickets, 

 shrubbery and undergrowth. 



The four genera to be here treated will be readily dis- 

 tinguished by the following characters. 



Genus LOPHOPHANES Kaup 



CHARS. Head crested. Wings and tail rounded, of about 

 equal lengths, and about as long as the body. Bill conoid com- 

 pressed, with upper and under outlines both convex. No yel- 

 low on head nor red on wing. Plumage lax, much the same 

 at all ages and seasons. Average size of the species at a 



