TITMICE 487 



This is the so-called Thcebe' note, which, it may be added, is uttered 

 by both sexes. Soon he comes to me, mildly inquisitive at first, 

 looking about for the friend or foe whose call has attracted him. In 

 an unconcerned way he hops from limb to limb, whistling softly the 

 while, picking an insect's egg from beneath a leaf here or larva from a 

 crevice in the bark there, all the time performing acrobatic feats of 

 which an accomplished gymnast might be proud. Finally his curiosity 

 becomes aroused, he ceases feeding, and gives his entire attention to the 

 discovery of the bird who so regularly replies to him. Hopping down to 

 a limb within three feet of my head, he regards me with puzzled intent- 

 ness; his little black eyes twinkle with intelligence, he changes his .call, 

 and questions me with a series of chick-d-dees, liquid gurgles, and odd 

 chuckling notes which it is beyond my power to answer, and finally, 

 becoming discouraged, he refuses to renew our whistled conversation 

 and retreats to the woods. 



On several occasions Chickadees have flown down and perched upon 

 my hand. During the few seconds they remained there I became rigid 

 with the emotion of this novel experience. It was a mark of confidence 

 which seemed to initiate me into the ranks of woodland dwellers. 



1900. CHAPMAN, F. M., Bird Studies with a Camera, 147-61 (nesting). 

 1911. STANWOOD, C. J., Journ. Me. Orn. Soc., XIII, 25-32 (nesting). 



736. Penthestes carolinensis carolinensis (Aud.). CAROLINA CHICKA- 

 DEE. Similar to the preceding species, but smaller; greater wing-coverts 

 not margined with whitish; wing and tail-feathers with less white on their 

 outer vanes. L., 4'06-4'75; W., 2'20-2'48; T., 1'88-2'12; B., '30-'32. 



Range. SE. U. S. Breeds in Carolinian and Austroriparian faunas 

 from cen. Mo., Ind., cen. Ohio, Pa. (sparingly), and cen. N. J., s. to se. La., 

 the Gulf coast, and n. Fla. 



Washington, very common P. R M particularly in winter. 



Nest, of grasses, fine strips of bark, feathers, hair, etc., in holes in trees, 

 stumps, etc. Eggs, 5-8, similar in color to those of P. atricapillus. Date, Mt. 

 Pleasant, S. C., Mch. 23; Iredell Co., N. C., Apl. 13; D. C., Apl. 24. 



My experience with this southern Chickadee has been confined 

 largely to Florida. There I found it a comparatively shy bird, with 

 notes quite unlike those of P. atricapillus. Instead of the two clear 

 whistles which atricapillus in New Jersey utters, the Florida bird 

 repeates four rather tremulous notes, and there is also a substantial 

 difference in its other calls, one of which resembles the words my watcher 

 key, my watcher key. 



Dr. C. W. Richmond writes me that at Washington the chick-d-dee 

 call of carolinensis is higher pitched and more hurriedly given than 

 that of atricapillus, and that the whistle consists of three notes, but in 

 New Jersey, Mr. W. DeW. Miller tells me that it consists of four. 



Writing from the mountains of North Carolina, where both species 

 occur together, Mr. Brewster says: "In one place a male of each species 

 was singing in the same tree the low, plaintive, tswee-dee-twsee-dee of 

 the P. carolinensis, contrasting sharply with the ringing te-derry of its 

 more northern cousin" (The Auk, 1886, p. 177). 



