THE ENGLISH SPARRO\ 



418 



get far north into New England. It is regarded bj^ many as 

 superior to the nightingale as a singer. 



The family of titmice includes also the nuthatches. The tits 

 are chiefly Old-world birds, but we have a common represen- 

 tative in the black- 

 capped chickadee, well 

 known from its cheerful 

 whistle. In this family 

 belong the nuthatches 

 which run over tree- 

 trunks, head up or down, 

 indiscriminately (Fig. 

 384). 



The little brown 

 creeper which travels 

 over the bark of trees 

 much as the nuthatches 

 do and uses its tail- 

 feathers as props against 

 the tree-trunk (Fig. 385) 

 belongs to an allied 

 family. 



The family of thrushes 



1 ] , Fig. 383. — TLowse viren (Troglodytes aedort) . 



includes several common 



American birds, — the robin, abundant about houses during 



the summer, but for the most part migrating south from New 



England during the winter ; the wood or song thrush, '^ one of 



our finest songsters ; the bluebird, one of the earliest of our 



migrants, with " the sky on its back and the earth on its 



breast." 



1 Fig. 386. 



