396 Bird -Lore 



crest. For, though it generally deserves the name it is sometimes given — "the 

 top-knot bird" — on occasion when preoccupied in hunting for its dinner, 

 or forcing itself to brave danger, it may change its expression entirely by 

 flattening its crest until, except for a point at the back of its head, it is almost 

 as round-headed as a Chickadee. 



Like Emerson's Chickadee, the Tomtit 



"Shows feats of his gymnastic play, 

 Head downward, clinging to the spray." 



but it is dinner rather than gymnastics he is thinking of. Leaves, and cracks 

 and crannies of bark he is examining with microscopic care for insects or their 

 eggs or larvae. 



When not hunting insect eggs, like a Chickadee, the Tomtit may be crack- 

 ing nuts like a Bluejay, hammering away at one held firmly under' his foot. 

 Beechnuts, hazelnuts, chinquapins, or even acorns, he accepts 

 Food cheerfully. Wild berries, such as those of dogwood and Vir- 



ginia creeper, are also taken in their turn, and in their proper 

 season, grasshoppers, beetles, cutworms and caterpillars form a large part of 

 his diet. Boll-weevils and scale insects, two of the worst insect pests of the 

 country, are sometimes eaten by him; while his nearest relatives in California 

 and the Southwest take an active part in destroying such dangerous enemies 

 of man. The Titmice do good by eating the insects, and also by carrying 

 them to their voracious young in the nest. 



The nest of the Tomtit, like that of the Chickadee, is almost always in 



a ready-made hollow, very often in a deserted Woodpecker's hole, especially 



in that of the Red-bellied Woodpecker, in localities where it 



Nest is to be found in abundance. On rare occasions, the Tomtit, 



it is said, excavates its own nest. 



To line the hollows, the birds carry in a variety of materials. For founda- 

 tion, they sometimes use grasses, strips of bark, and Spanish moss, filling 

 in with a lining of soft materials such as feathers and hair. Where do they 

 get these soft furnishings? That is one of the many interesting things to find 

 out. A hair-gatherer was once seen, as the observer supposed, trying to drive 

 off a red squirrel. But field-glasses told a different story. The squirrel lay 

 resting on a branch and the Titmouse "would approach cautiously from 

 behind and catch at its tail." The industrious bird kept doing this until 

 it "had collected quite a mouthful of the hairs with which it flew off to a hole 

 nearby, where it was deposited!" 



The observer does not tell us whether the squirrel was asleep or whether 

 it remonstrated with its small neighbor ; but it all shows that there are a great 

 many surprising things to be seen and heard in the woods. 



While the Tomtit usually nests in a hole in a tree or stump, one eccentric 

 bird has been found building in a bunch of Spanish moss. When a violent 



