CRESTED TITMOUSE. 93 
gives it a smart and not inelegant appearance. Its food corresponds 
with that of the foregoing; it possesses considerable strength in the 
Yauscles of its neck, and is almost perpetually digging into acorns, nuts, 
crevices, and rotten parts of the bark, after the larve of insects. It is 
also'a constant resident here. When shot at and wounded, it fights 
with great spirit.’ When confined to a cage, it soon becomes familiar, 
and will subsist on hemp seed, cherry stones, apple seeds, and hickory 
nuts, broken and thrown into it. However, if the cage be made of 
willows, and the bird not much hurt, he will soon make his way through 
them. The great concavity of the lower side of the wings and tail of 
this genus of birds, is a strong characteristic, and well suited to their 
short, irregular flight. ; 
This species is also found over the whole United States, but is 
most numerous towards the north. It extends also to Hudson’s Bay, 
and, according to Latham, is found in Denmark, and in the southern 
parts of Greenland, where it is called Avingursak. If so, it probably 
inhabits the continent of North America, from sea to sea. 
-The Crested Titmouse is six inches long, and seven inches and a 
half in extent. The whole upper parts, a dull cinereous or lead color, 
except the front, which is black, tinged with reddish; whole lower 
parts, dirty white, except the sides under the wings, which are reddish 
orange; legs and feet, light blue; bill, black, short, and pretty strong ; 
wing-feathers, relieved with dusky on their inner vanes; eye, dark 
hazel; lores, white; the head, elegantly ornamented with a high, 
pointed, almost upright crest; tail, a little forked, considerably con- 
cave. below, and of the same color above as the back ; tips of the wings, 
dusky ; tongue, very short, truncate, and ending in three or four sharp 
points. The female cannot be distinguished from the male by her 
plumage, unless in its being something duller, for both are equally 
marked with reddish orange on the sides under the wings, which'some 
foreigners have made the distinguishing mark of the male alone. 
The nest is built in a hollow tree, the cavity often dug by itself; 
the female begins to lay early in May; the eggs are usually six, pure 
white, with a few very small specks of red near the great end. The 
whole family, in the month of July, hunt together, the parents keeping 
up a continual chatter, as if haranguing and directing their inexpe- 
rienced brood.* : : 
* This beautiful and attractive race of birds, the genuine Titmice, have-a geo- 
raphical distribution over the whole world, — South:America, New Holland, and 
e islands in the South Pacific Ocean, excepted. In the latter countries, they seem 
‘represented by the genus Pardalotus, yet, however, very limited in numbers. They 
. are more numerous in temperate and even northern climates, than near the tropics ; 
the greater numbers, both as to individuals and species, extend over Europe. 
Tn is country, when the want of foliage allows us to examine their manners, 
they form one of the most interesting of our winter visitants. I call them visitants 
only ; for during summer they are occupied with the duties of incubation in retire- 
ment, amid the depths of the most solitary forests, and only at the commencement 
of winter, or during its rigors, become more domesticated, and flock in small parties 
the amount of their broods, to our gardens, and the vicinity of our houses ; several 
Species together, and generally in company with the Gold-crested Wrens. The 
activity of their motions in search of food, or in dispute with one another; the va- 
riety-of their cries, from something very shrill and timid, to loud and wild; their 
sometimes elegant, sometimes grotesque dltitudes, contrasted by the difference of 
form ; and the varied flights, from the short dart and jerk of the Marsh and Cole 
