CRESTED TITMOUSE. 



- Pakus bicoloe, Linn. 

 PLATE CXXV.— Male and Female. 



Although this sniart little bird breeds in the State of Louisiana and the 

 adjacent districts, it is not there found in so great numbers as in the Middle 

 States, and farther to the northward. It generally prefers the depth of the 

 forests during summer, after which it approaches the plantations, and even 

 resorts to the granaries for corn. 



Its flight is short, the bird being seldom seen on the wing long enough to 

 cross a field of moderate extent. It is performed by repeated flaps of the 

 wings, accompanied by jerks of the body and tail, and occasions a rustling 

 noise, as it takes place from one tree to another. It moves along the 

 branches, searches in the chinks, flies to the end of twigs and hangs to them 

 by its feet, whilst the bill is engaged in detaching a beech or hazel nut, an 

 acorn or a chinquapin, upon all of which it feeds, removing them to a large 

 branch, where, having secured them in a crevice, it holds them with both 

 feet, and breaks the shell by repeated blows of its bill. They are to be seen 

 thus employed for many minutes at a time. They move about in little 

 companies formed of the parents and their young, eight or ten together, and 

 escorted by the Nuthatch or the Downy Woodpecker. It is pleasing to 

 listen to the sound produced by their labour, which in a calm day may be 

 heard at the distance of twenty or thirty yards. If a nut or an acorn is 

 accidentally dropped, the bird flies to the ground, picks it up, and again 

 returns to a branch. They also alight on the ground or on dry leaves, to 

 look for food, after the trees become bare, and hop about with great nimble- 

 ness, going to the margins of the brooks to drink, and when unable to do 

 so, obtaining w T ater by stooping from the extremity of a twig hanging over 

 the stream. In fact, they appear to prefer this latter method, and are also 

 fond of drinking the drops of rain or dew as they hang at the extremities 

 of the leaves. 



Their notes are rather musical than otherwise, the usual one being loud 

 and mellow. They do not use the tee-tee-tee of their relative the Black- 

 capped Titmouse, half so often as the latter does, but emit a considerable 

 variety of sounds, many of which, if the bird from which they come does 

 not happen to be known to the listener, are apt to induce disappointment in 



