X48 BLACK-CAP TITMOUSE. 



pleasure in his company. If, as is usually the case, he is provided with a 

 dinner, the Chickadee at once evinces its anxiety to partake of it, and loses 

 no opportunity of accomplishing its object, although it sets about it with 

 much circumspection, as if it were afraid of being detected, and brought to 

 punishment. A woodcutter in Maine assured me, that one day he happened 

 to be at work, and had scarcely hung up his basket of provisions, when it 

 was observed by a flock of these birds, which, having gathered into it at 

 once, attacked a piece of cold beef; but after each peck, he saw their heads 

 raised above the edge, as if to guard against the least appearance of danger. 

 After picking until they were tired or satisfied, they left the basket and 

 perched directly over his fire, but out of the direction of the smoke. There 

 they sat enjoying themselves and ruffling their feathers to allow the warmth 

 more easy access to their skin, until he began his dinner, when they imme- 

 diately alighted near him, and in the most plaintive tones seemed to solicit 

 a portion. 



Wilson and others have spoken of this species as being addicted to 

 moving in the company of our smaller Woodpeckers and Brown Creepers, 

 and this in such a way as to induce most readers to believe the act to be 

 customary; but I have often found groups of them, at times composed of 

 more than a dozen, without any such companions, and I should be more 

 inclined to think that the Downy Woodpecker, and the Brown Creeper, 

 seek the company of the Titmice, rather than that the latter associate with 

 them. Often indeed have I watched the busy Chickadees, as they proceeded 

 from tree to tree, and from branch to branch, whether by the road-side or in 

 the interior of the forest, when no other birds were with them. The light 

 rustling sound of their concave wings would intimate their approach as well 

 as their retreat, as gaily one after another they passed onwards from one spot 

 to another, chattering, peeping everywhere, and determined as it were, not 

 to suffer a chink to pass without inspection. Now hanging, back downward, 

 at the extremity of a twig, its feet almost up to its bill, it would peck at a 

 berry or a seed until it had devoured it, or it had fallen to the ground: 

 should the latter be the case, the busy bird would at once fly down, and 

 hammer at the fruit. To the Black-cap Titmouse the breaking of a hazel- 

 nut is quite a pleasure, and I have repeatedly seen the feat accomplished not 

 only by a bird in its natural state, but by one kept in confinement. 

 Courageous and at times exceedingly tyrannical, it will attack young birds, 

 break their skulls, and feed upon their flesh, as I have more than once 

 witnessed. In this habit they resemble the Jays, but in every other they 

 differ entirely from those birds, although the Prince of Musignano has 

 thought fit to assimilate the two groups. The Chickadee feeds on insects, 

 their larvre, and eggs, as well as on every sort of small fruit, or berries, 



