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THE CRESTED TITMOUSE. 



Parus Bicor.OR, Linn. 

 PLATE XXXIX. Male and Female. 



Although this smart little bird breeds in the State of Louisiana and 

 the adjacent districts, it is not there found in so great numbers as in the 

 Middle States, and farther to the northward. It generally prefers the 

 depth of the forests during summer, after which it approaches the plan- 

 tations, and even resorts to the granaries for corn. 



Its flight is short, the bird being seldom seen on the wing long 

 enough to cross a field of moderate extent. It is performed by repeated 

 flaps of the wings, accompanied by jerks of the body and tail, and occa- 

 sions a rustling noise, as it takes place from one tree to another. It 

 moves along the branches, searches in the chinks, flies to the end of twigs 

 and hangs to them by its feet, whilst the bill is engaged in detaching a 

 beech or hazel nut, an acorn or a chinquapin, upon all of which it 

 feeds, removing them to a large branch, where, having secured them in 

 a crevice, it holds them with both feet, and breaks the shell by repeated 

 blows of its bill. They are to be seen thus employed for many minutes 

 at a time. They move about in httle companies formed of the parents 

 and their young, eight or ten together, and escorted by the Nuthatch or 

 the Downy Woodpecker. It is pleasing to listen to the sound produced 

 by their labour, which in a calm day may be heard at the distance of 

 twenty or thirty yards. If a nut or an acorn is accidentally dropped, 

 the bird flies to the ground, picks it up, and again returns to a branch. 

 They also alight on the ground or on dry leaves, to look for food, after 

 the trees become bare, and hop about with great nimbleness, going to the 

 margins of the brooks to drink, and when unable to do so, obtaining wa- 

 ter by stooping from the extremity of a twig hanging over the stream. 

 In fact, they appear to prefer this latter method, and are also fond of 

 drinking the drops of rain or dew as they hang at the extremities of the 

 leaves. 



Their notes are rather musical than otherwise, the usual one bemg 

 loud and meUow. They do not use the tee-tee-tee of their relative the 

 Black-capped Titmouse, half so often as the latter does, but emit a con- 



