Titmice and Chickadees 747 



THE TITMICE AND CHICKADEES 



(Family Paridce) 



Chick-a-dee, chick-a-dee, dee, dee, quaintly calls an industrious grayish little 

 bird, hanging head downward from the extremity of a slender branch, and 

 chick-a-dee, chick-a-dee, dee, reply his dozen equally active companions. 

 This familiar bird, too well known to need extended description, may be taken 

 as a typical representative of the present family, which, according to latest 

 authority, comprises more than twenty genera and over two hundred forms, 

 and ranges practically throughout the entire world with the exception of the 

 neotropical region and the Pacific islands. The Paridce, are all small birds, 

 mostly under seven inches in length, usually non-migratory and mainly insectivo- 

 rous, though feeding to some extent on a variety of things. They have a long, 

 soft, lax plumage, the color of which is usually dull or plain, the principal tints 

 being white, black, yellow, and blue, there being frequently spots on back or 

 wings but never bars in any part of the plumage; the sides of the head are often 

 colored differently from the rest of the head, and the crown-feathers are not 

 infrequently prolonged into conspicuous crests; the sexes are generally alike 

 in plumage and the young usually paler than the adults, but retaining their color 

 pattern. Structurally the Tits have a short, stout, more or less conical, un- 

 notched bill, which is about one third the length of the head, and short rictal 

 bristles, while the nasal feathers are directed forward, usually concealing the 

 nostrils; the wings are short and rounded, but the tail varies in length and 

 shape, being short and square in the typical members and long and graduated 

 or even emarginate in others. 



The general characteristics of the family have been so ably set forth by Dr. 

 Coues that I cannot refrain from giving his account in full. "A strong family 

 likeness 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 nidification, 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 of enduring great cold with impunity. Their musical ability 

 is decidedly of a low order, though they have a great variety of hearty and not 

 displeasing 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 gre- 

 garious, but they are accused of being tyrannical and cruel, like Jays, toward 

 weaker or more defenseless species. They are very prolific, not only laying a 

 large clutch of eggs, but often rearing more than one brood annually ; as a con- 

 sequence, they are unusually abundant wherever found at all. They are chiefly 

 confined to wooded country, the boreal species of America haunting coniferous 

 forests, while others, for the most part, prefer thickets, shrubbery, and under- 

 growth." 



