BLACK-CAP TITMOUSE. 149 



including grapes, acorns, and the seeds of various pines. I have seen them 

 eat the seeds of the sunflower, the pokeberry, and pears, as well as flesh 

 of all kinds. Indeed it may be truly called omnivorous. Often, like Jays, 

 you may see them perched as it were upon their food, and holding it beneath 

 their feet while pecking at it; but no Jays are seen to hang head downwards 

 at the end of a branch. 



My friend Thomas M'Culloch, Esq. of Halifax, in Nova Scotia, has 

 favoured me with the following interesting remarks having reference to this 

 species. "Sometimes I have been inclined to think, that the sight of this 

 bird is comparatively imperfect, and that it is chiefly indebted to some of the 

 other senses for its success in obtaining subsistence. This idea may not be 

 correct, but it seems to derive some support from the little incident which I 

 am about to mention. While standing at the edge of a patch of newly- 

 felled wood, over which the fire had recently passed, and left every thing 

 black in its course, I observed a small flock of these birds coming from the 

 opposite side of the clearing. Being dressed in black and aware of their 

 familiarity, I stood perfectly motionless, for the purpose of ascertaining how 

 near they would approach. Stealing from branch to branch, and peering for 

 food among the crevices of the prostrate trunks, as they passed along, 

 onward they came until the foremost settled upon a small twig a few feet 

 from the spot upon which I stood. After looking about for a short time it 

 flew and alighted just below the lock of a double-barrelled gun which I held 

 in a slanting direction below my arm. Being unable however to obtain a 

 hold, it slided down to the middle of the piece, and then flew away, jerking 

 its tail, and apparently quite unconscious of having been so near the deadly 

 weapon. In this country these birds seem to be influenced by a modification 

 of that feeling by which so many others are induced to congregate at the 

 close of autumn and seek a more congenial clime. At that period they 

 collect in large flocks and exhibit all the hurry and bustle of travellers, who 

 are bent upon a distant journey. If these flocks do not migrate, their union 

 is soon destroyed, for when the Black-cap Titmice again appear, it is in 

 small flocks; their former restlessness is gone, and they now exhibit their 

 wonted care and deliberation in searching for food." 



The nest of this species, whether it be placed in the hole of a Woodpecker 

 or squirrel, or in a place dug by itself, is seldom found at a height exceeding 

 ten feet. Most of those which I have seen were in low broken or hollowed 

 stumps only a few feet high. The materials of which it is composed vary 

 in different districts, but are generally the hair of quadrupeds, in a con- 

 siderable quantity, and disposed in the shape of a loose bag or purse, as in 

 most other species which do not hang their nests outside. Some persons 

 have said that they lay their eggs on the bare wood, or on the chips left by 



Vol. II. 26 



