The Plain Titmice 
SSIC-RAP sssicrap comes from the depths of an oak tree on an April 
day, and unless one is used to this accusing expletive, he is apt to start 
up like a guilty cat, before he recovers his aplomb and decides to face his 
accuser. The bird is only trying your nerves, and if they stand the ordeal, 
he will utter a tsay tsay tsay of reassurance, and fall to hammering on the 
bark in a quite abstracted way. If the bird’s mate is not sitting on the 
eggs, she is in close company with her lord, and you will hear scraps of 
conversation in sibilant squeaks and merry day days, which win the ear 
and delight the heart. The Plain Tit’s repertory of song is highly varied, 
like that of the eastern Tufted Titmouse (B. bicolor). Many of the notes 
bear a close resemblance to those of the eastern birds, but the twx> 
most characteristic cries of bicolor, the cheeyv, cheevy, cheevy, and the clearer 
peto, peto, peto, are rarely heard 
from inornatus; and the utter¬ 
ances of the latter are both less 
emphatic and less distinct. 
It takes an experienced 
ear to recognize all of Master 
Plain’s achievements; and 
after one has familiarized 
himself with generic lines of 
effort, there remain charming 
individual variations and sur¬ 
prises which assure a sus¬ 
tained interest on the part of 
the student. It’s dollars to 
doughnuts that this very 
plain bird will give you mo¬ 
mentary visions of rare ex¬ 
otics—Troupials and golden 
Tanagers, and what not— 
before you acquire the 
habit of attributing all 
strange noises to B. inorna¬ 
tus. What should I do, for 
instance, upon catching the 
golden crests of a mellow 
bassoon in the acacia tree 
across the road? Why, 
rush to the house for the 
binoculars and hard after, 
Hope Ranch, Santa Barbara Photo by the Author f A t n oo r a nnrna f-U 
such shades as titmice love ot course. .At nearapproacn 
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