BLACK-CAP TITMOUSE. 377 
Courageous and at times exceedingly tyrannical, it will attack young 
birds, break their skulls, and feed upon their flesh, as I have more than 
once witnessed. In this habit they resemble the Jays, but in every 
other they differ entirely from those birds, although the Prince of Mv- 
siGNAno has thought fit to assimilate the two groups. The Chickadee 
feeds on insects, their larve, and eggs, as well as on every sort of small 
fruit, or berries, including grapes, acorns, and the seeds of various 
pines. I have seen them eat the seeds of the sun-flower, the poke- 
berry, and pears, as well as flesh of all kinds. Indeed it may be truly 
called omnivorous. Often, like Jays, you may see them perched as it 
were upon their food, and holding it beneath their feet while pecking at 
it; but no Jays are seen to hang head downwards‘at the end of a branch. 
My friend Tuomas M‘Cottocu, Esq. of Pictou, in Nova Scotia, has 
favoured me with the following interesting remarks having reference to 
this species. ‘“‘ Sometimes I have been inclined to think, that the sight 
of this bird is comparatively imperfect, and that it is chiefly indebted 
to some of the other senses for its success in obtaining subsistence. 
This idea may not be correct, but it seems to derive some support from 
the little incident which I am about to mention. While standing at 
the edge of a patch of newly-felled wood, over which the fire had re- 
cently passed, and left every thing black in its course, I observed a 
small flock of these birds coming from the opposite side of the clearing. 
Being dressed in black and aware of their familiarity, I stood perfectly 
motionless, for the purpose of ascertaining how near they would ap- 
proach. Stealing from branch to branch, and peering for food among 
the crevices of the prostrate trunks, as they passed along, onward they 
came until the foremost settled upon a small twig a few feet from the 
spot upon which I stood. After looking about for a short time it flew 
and alighted just below the lock of a double-barrelled gun which I held 
in a slanting direction below my arm. Being unable however to ob- 
tain a hold, it slided down to the middle of the piece, and then flew 
away, jerking its tail, and apparently quite unconscious of having been 
so near the deadly weapon. In this country these birds seem to be in- 
fluenced by a modification of that feeling by which so many others are 
induced to congregate at the close of autumn and seek a more conge- 
nial clime. At that period they collect in large flocks and exhibit all 
the hurry and bustle of travellers, who are bent upon a distant journey. 
