252 REPORT OF THE FOREST, FISH AND GAME COMMISSION, 



The scarcity of this species in most parts of the country renders it such an 

 object of curiosity that it is usually shot on sight by hunters or by anybody 

 who happens to have a gun with him. This should not be allowed. The bird is 

 not fit for food, and there is no possible use to which its body can be put after its 

 death, while when alive it is one of the most valuable conservators of the forest. 



The Titmice (Paridae). 



The titmice are mostly small, plain-colored birds, with but little attempt at 

 ornamentation beyond a crest or tuft of feathers upon the head, which can be 

 raised or lowered at will. Their colors are, for the most part, black and white, 

 with some brown and plain gray. While they may often be seen in groves and 

 orchards, and even on wayside trees, they are by nature, inhabitants of the forests. 

 This is more especially true of the Eastern species, most of which are nonmigra- 

 tory, and in winter time may be met in loose flocks rambling through the woods, 

 every one busy searching the trees for food, and at short intervals giving his call 

 note, which enables the company to keep together. At such times there will 

 usually be a few birds of other species with them, notably the downy woodpecker, 

 the brown creeper and one or both of the common species of nuthatches. This 

 is not entirely a case of birds of a feather flocking together, but of birds of 

 similar food habits banded for a common purpose. Community of taste in the 

 matter of diet, and the method of obtaining it, is evidently the bond which holds 

 these different species together. 



If one will watch these tiny creatures as they flit from tree to tree, he will 

 wonder that anything suitable for food can escape their prying eyes. When 

 one of them alights upon a tree it at once begins a minute investigation 

 of the trunk and limbs, paying particular attention to every place, such as a 

 knothole or a decayed spot, where any insect might be concealed or where its 

 eggs might be laid. In doing this it swings itself under horizontal branches, runs 

 up the perpendicular trunk, or stands head downward while it examines a particu- 

 larly promising spot. It searches every crack in the bark, peeks under every bit 

 of moss or lichen, and, if it be the time when the leaf-buds are beginning to swell, 

 it will peer into every one in search of the newly hatched caterpillar, which it 

 literally "nips in the bud." 



The birds of the titmice family, though insignificant in size, are far from 

 being so in the matter of their food habits. What they lack in size of body they 

 more than make up in numbers of individuals. While in the case of some of 

 the larger birds — as, for instance, the flicker — there is one pair of eyes to look 



