‘TITS AND NUTHATCHES. 
Paridae. 
~ | HE TRUE Titmice, about seventy species, are, “with few exceptions, 
confined to the northern hemisphere, and abound in most parts 
of Europe, Asia, and North America. A strong family likeness 
runs through the whole of them, and their habits and manners 
in most respects are much the same. The principal exception to 
this statement is found in the methods of nidification, which vary 
greatly—some species building in holes of trees, which they exca- 
vate like Woodpeckers, while others construct immense purse-like pen- 
sile nests of grasses or mosses. They are for the most part hardy 
birds, capable of enduring great cold with impunity; this circumstance 
7 which, with their omnivorous tastes, renders procuring of food of one 
kind or another easy at all seasons, causes them to be non-migratory 
or only imperfectly so. Their musical ability is decidedly of a low 
order, though they have a great variety of hearty and not displeasing 
notes. They are very active, restless, energetic, and industrious birds, withal turbulent, 
self-asserting, and in presence of man heedless to a degree. Among their own kind, 
they are sociable, in some cases almost gregarious, but are accused of being tyrannical 
aud cruel, like Jays, toward weaker, or more defenseless species. They are very prolific, 
not only laying a large clutch of eggs, but often rearing more than one brood annually; 
as a consequence, they are usually abundant wherever found at all. They are chiefly 
. confined to wooded country; the boreal species of. America, like Parus hudsonicus, 
haunt the coniferous forests; others, for the most part, prefer thickets, shrubbery, and 
undergrowth.” * 
The Nuthatches differ from the true Titmice in their climbing up and down the 
trees, which is their prime characteristic. ‘Our other scansorial birds, such as the Creepers 
and Woodpeckers, use the tail as a prop or stay to assist in maintaining position; for 
which purpose the feathers are specially contrived by their rigidity and strength, being 
* Dr. Elliott Coues in ‘‘Birds of the Colorado Valley.” 
