PARI D.K — THE TITMIPK 103 



niitl resident, beiii;,' in winter one of tlie most common, as well iis one ol' 

 the most ramiliur liirils, inhabiting all luculilios, giving jtrelerunce neither 

 to swampy woods nor to door-yards, for it is as often seen in one \A\\vv. as 

 another. It is never gregarious, tliough many may often be seen or heard at 

 the same moment. It begins inciil»ation early in April, generally selecting 

 the wild phim and red-bud trees in the woods. This species very often 

 constructs its own nesting- places, and the soft wood of the.se trees is very 

 easily excavated. The excavation is generally made in a horizontal dead 

 limb, with the opening on the under side ; tiiis is neat and regular, and as 

 elaborate as those of any of the woodpeckers. Sometimes, however, a 

 natural cavity is selected, fre(piently in a pi tstmte stumit or "snag." The 

 nest is almost always a very elaborate structure, being a strong comi)act cup 

 or Ijed of "felt," whose main material is rabbit-fur and cow-hair. 



In its habits it seems to resemble more closely the /'. jxtl ust rii of Europe 

 than the atricapill !(.•<, being generally found only in the immediate vicinity 

 of ponds and deep, marshy, moist woods. It is also rarely fouiitl other 

 than singly or in pairs, the parent birds, unlike most of this family, separat- 

 ing from their young soon after the latter are able to provide for tliemselves. 

 It rarely or never moves in Hocks. 



Their notes are said to be ' i sonorous and less frequent than those of our 

 Black-capped Titmouse. In the winter a portion retire from the coast in 

 South Carolina into the interior of the State and into Florida, where Air. 

 Audubon found them, in the winter of 1831 and 1832, much more abun- 

 dant than he had ever seen them elsewhere. He found them breeding as 

 early as February, occasionally in the nests deserted by the J>rown-headed 

 Nuthatch. A nest obtained by Dr. Uachman from a hollow stump, about 

 four feet from the ground, was in form cup-shaped, measuring two inches 

 internally in diameter at the mouth, and three externally, with a depth 

 of two inches. It was constructed of cotton, fine wool, a few fibres of 

 plants, and so elaborately felted together as to be of uniform thickness 

 throughout. 



Mr. Audubon was in error in regard to the eggs, -which he describes as 

 pure white. Their ground-color i ) of pure crystalline whiteness, but they 

 are freely and boldly marked all over with deej) reddisli-brown and red spots. 

 Tiiese, so far as we have compared the eggs, are larger, more numerous, and 

 more deeply marked than are any eggs of the utricu^illus we have ever met 

 with. 



According to the observations of the late Dr. Alexander Gerhardt of 

 Whitfield Co\inty, Georgia, tiiese birds usually breed in holes that have 

 been previously dug out by the J'icKs jiKhfsrnis, or in decaying stuinjis not 

 more than five or six feet from the ground. He never met with its nest in 

 living trees. The eggs are from five to seven in number, and are usually 

 deposited in Georgia from the 10th to the last of Apiil. 



The eggs of this sjjecies are slightly larger than those of the atricapillm, 



