The Lead-colored Bush-Tit 
lovers get so interested in a new blossom or bit of moss, even when the 
babies are crying for food, that they will forget what they went after, 
seize the blossom and hurry home with it. I could imagine a hungry 
Bush-Tit baby saying, “But where’s my dinner?” And I could 
imagine the Bush-Tit mamma saying, “Well, now, dear child, it’s 
too bad that mamma forgot you were hungry. But look at the 
perfectly be-eautijul moth-wing I brought to you. See; I’ll hang it up 
where we can all see, and we’ll forget that we haven’t had anything 
to eat. Anyhow, that’ll stay your stomach until I can get back with 
some real victuals.” 
But Mr. and Mrs. Bush-Tit are pretty good providers, after all, 
and the babies grow and they grow until they fill the nest chock up. 
Then by and by they get restless and tired of taking turns peeping 
out of the little round hole. The biggest one makes up his mind to 
strike out for himself, whereupon his brothers and sisters follow so 
fast that a Bush-Tit’s nest giving up its young reminds you of nothing 
else in the world so much as a Roman candle sputtering and spitting 
out balls of colored light. And every one of those youngsters will 
hunt bugs and build nests and lug in useless pretties to hang on the 
walls to the end of the chapter. 
No. 127 
Lead-colored Bush-Tit 
A. O. U. No. 744 . Psaltriparus plumbeus Baird. 
Synonym.— Plumbeous Bush-Tit. 
Description. —Somewhat similar to P. minimus, but pileum of the same color 
as back. Adult: Above neutral gray, tending to drab (especially on forehead in 
worn plumage); wings and tail hair-brown to fuscous, with edgings of bluish gray 
(gull gray); sides of head drab (darkening on eyelids and lores in fresh plumage); 
chin, sides of throat, and sides light drab; remaining underparts drab-gray, paling— 
whitish—on throat and chest. Bill and feet blackish; iris pale yellow. Young: Much 
like adult, but sides of head less brownish, more like crown; and texture of plumage 
looser. Length about 114.3 (4.50); wing 51 (2.01); tail 56 (2.20); bill 7 (.275); tarsus 
16 (.63). 
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