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THE CAROLINA TITMOUSE 



Far us carolinensis. 



PLATE CliX. Male and Female. 



It was not until some time after my drawing of this small southern 

 species of Titmouse had been engraved and distributed among my patrons, 

 that I discovered the difference as to size and habits between it and the 

 one which inhabits the Middle and Northern States, and which has been 

 so well described by Wilson, Nuttall and Swainson. Indeed, I never 

 was struck with the difference of size until I reached Eastport in the State 

 of Maine, early in May 1833, when one morning my friend Lieutenant 

 Green of the United States army entered my room and shewed me a 

 Titmouse which he had just procured. The large size of his bird, com- 

 pared with those met with in the south, instantly struck me. 



On my return from Labrador, I immediately proceeded to Charles- 

 ton in South Carolina, with a view of once more visiting the western por- 

 tions of the Floridas and the whole coast of the Gulf of Mexico. In the 

 course of conversation with my friend, the Reverend John Baghman, I 

 mentioned my ideas on the subject of Titmice, when he immediately told 

 me that he had for some time been of the same mind. We both went to 

 the woods, and procured some specimens. I wrote to several persons of 

 my acquaintance in Massachusetts, Maine, and Maryland, and before a 

 month had elapsed, I received an abundant supply of the Northern spe- 

 cies, preserved in spirits, from my friend John Bethune of Boston, 

 Lieutenant Green, and Colonel Theodore Anderson of Baltimore. 

 We examined and compared many individuals of both species, and satisfied 

 ourselves that they were indeed specifically distinct. 



The new species, the Carolina Titmouse, is a constant inhabitant of 

 the Southern States, in which I have traced it from the lower parts of 

 Louisiana through the Floridas as far as the borders of the Boanoke 

 River, which separates North Carolina from Virginia, when it altogether 

 disappeared. In these countries it is found only in the immediate vi- 

 cinity of ponds and deep marshy and moist swamps, rarely during winter 

 in greater numbers than one pair together, and frequently singly. The 

 parent birds separate from the voung probablv soon after the latter are 



