2IO Bird - Lore 



I imagined that I could tell the male and the female apart by their actions. 

 These small birds usually utter their call-notes — a bell-like tinkle — as they 

 forage, and this was kept up in their building. Their coming and going was 

 always heralded by it. It seemed to me that, though their note was the same, 

 there was a difference in the intensity of the two calls. One bird came with a 

 noisy bustle into the tree, proclaiming his presence in no uncertain way. Such 

 an important little bus\body as he was! He was bringing building material 

 for his nest, and he wanted everybody to know it. I use the masculine gender 

 in describing this bird, because, the year before, when I had watched them 

 nesting, I had found that the noisy one was the male, — the female slipping 

 quietly out from the nest, and as quietly going to it. Of these builders, one little 

 Tit was much more cjuiet than the other, and this bird I took to be the female. 



The material brought was sometimes so small that it was hard to tell just 

 what it might be. At other times their mouths were crammed full of cotton, and 

 cottony-looking material. I have seen them pull at an old rope, raveling out 

 the material in little tufts, which they carried away. I have heard, too, of their 

 pulling the wool off a Navajo blanket that was being aired on the clothes-line. 

 The outside of the nest was made of fine material felted together, bits of paper, 

 strings, cloth, fine grasses, and oak tassels being woven into the outside. Some- 

 times, when the noisy bird came, he seemed to have nothing in his mouth; but, 

 going to the opening of the nest, which was a small, round hole near the top, he 

 would pull off some of the outside material and place it inside, and then fly 

 away, giving his jovial ^tsip, fsip.'' 



For more than a month I watched these little birds putting the finishing 

 touches into their home. I wondered if nest-building was like house-building, — 

 the outside of the structure going up with a rush, and, when looking completed, 

 being only well begun. 



On Saturday afternoon, March 21, at 2.30 o'clock, I found both birds busy 

 in the tree. In five minutes, one bird, presumably the female, went into the 

 nest and stayed, while the other foraged noisily for a short time, then flew away. 

 Seven minutes later the male returned, and the female joined him. Three minutes 

 later one bird went in with cottony-looking material, coming right out again. 

 This building after brooding has begun is a habit of these tiny birds. Eleven 

 minutes after the female left the nest, she returned, and nine minutes later, when 

 I left, was still there. 



In watching the nest the year before, I found that that female — as this one — 

 came out and joined her mate, foraging for herself rather than being fed by 

 him, as I have read is sometimes the case with these birds. Never did I see the 

 male go into the nest after brooding had begun, unless, perchance, it were he 

 who carried in the building material. The nearest approach to his doing so was 

 a rather amusing attempt, one evening. At 5.15 I was at the tree. All was quiet 

 at the nest, but one Tit was about in the tree. At 5.45 a bird came noisily to the 

 nest, going to the opening, then flying away. Soon he came back and started 



