ORDER PASSERES. 221 



tione, gardens, and orchards. These titmice also sojourn 

 at times in marshy places, from which some have called them 

 reed titmice, a name little suitable to them, as they retire to 

 woods, and even to those situated on mountains, for the pur- 

 pose of reproduction. These little birds are very lively and 

 mobile, and great enemies to repose. They hop from bush 

 to bush, and from tree to tree, traverse all the branches with 

 an astonishing promptness, and fasten by the claws to the 

 extremity of the weakest boughs. They seldom quit each 

 other, and have a rallying cry, like ti, ti, ti, ti, at the sound 

 of which they fly to their companions, and disappear with a 

 guickey, sent forth by the cliief when the band is troubled. 

 These birds live in families from the time they leave the nest 

 until spring ; then each makes choice of a companion, retires 

 into the thickest woods, and both are immediately occupied 

 in constructing a cradle for the new and numerous progeny. 

 Some of them suspend their nest to the branches ; but they 

 usually attach it, solidly, to the boughs of shrubs about 

 three or four feet from the ground ; give it an oval and 

 almost cylindrical form, close it above, place an entrance, an 

 inch in diameter, on the side, and sometimes two issues, which 

 correspond. This nest is almost eight inches high, and four 

 inches broad. Its texture is close, its exterior composed of 

 blades of grass, moss, and lichens ; and its interior furnished 

 with a great quantity of feathers. The eggs, from ten to 

 twenty, are hardly perceptible at the first look, so well are 

 they concealed in the heap of feathers at the bottom of the 

 nest. Their colour is gray, more clear towards the gross 

 end, which is surrounded with a reddish zone. The father 

 and mother feed the young with those aliments on which they 

 live themselves, as caterpillars, gnats, insects of various 

 kinds ; sometimes small seeds, or morsels of the buds of 

 trees, which they cut off adroitly and merrily. As soon as 

 the young can quit the nest, the whole family, with the 



