CAROLINA TITMOUSE. 153 



The laro-e size of his bird, compared with those met with in the south, 

 instantly struck me. 



On my return from Labrador, I immediately proceeded to Charleston in 

 South Carolina, with a view of once more visiting the western portions of 

 the Floridas and the whole coast of the Gulf of Mexico. In the course of 

 conversation with my friend, the Reverend John Bachman, I mentioned 

 my ideas on the subject of Titmice, when he immediately told me that he 

 had for some time been of the same mind. We both went to the woods, 

 and procured some specimens. I wrote to several persons of my acquaint- 

 ance in Massachusetts, Maine, and Maryland, and before a month had 

 elapsed, I received an abundant supply of the Northern species, preserved 

 in spirits, from my friend John M. Bethttne of Boston, Lieutenant Green, 

 and Colonel Theodore Anderson of Baltimore. We examined and com- 

 pared many individuals of both species, and satisfied ourselves that they were 

 indeed specifically distinct. 



This new species, the Carolina Titmouse, is a constant inhabitant of the 

 Southern States, in which I have traced it from the lower parts of Louisiana 

 through the Floridas as far as the borders of the Roanoke river, which 

 separates North Carolina from Virginia; and it is now ascertained that this 

 species reaches eastward as far as the State of New Jersey, where it has been 

 procured by my friend Edward Harris. In general it is found only in 

 the immediate vicinity of ponds and deep marshy and moist swamps, rarely 

 during winter in greater numbers than one pair together, and frequently 

 singly. The parent birds separate from the young probably soon after the 

 latter are able to provide for themselves. The other species moves in flocks 

 during the whole winter, frequenting the orchards, the gardens, or the 

 hedges and trees along the roads, entering the villages, and coming to the 

 wood-piles of the farmers. The southern species is never met with in such 

 places at any time of the year, and is at all seasons a shyer bird, and more 

 difficult to be obtained. Its notes are also less sonorous, and less frequent, 

 than those of the Titmouse found in the Middle and Northern Districts. 



My friend John Bachman is of opinion that the smaller species partially 

 retires from South Carolina during winter, in consequence of the small 

 number met with there at that season. On referring to my journals, written 

 in the Floridas, in the winter of 1831-32, 1 find that they are mentioned as 

 being much more abundant than in the Carolinas, and as breeding in the 

 swamps as early as the middle of February. 



The Carolina Titmouse breeds in the holes abandoned by the Brown- 

 headed Nuthatch; but I have not yet examined either its eggs or its nest, 

 having at first carelessly supposed the bird to be identical with the northern 

 species, as my predecessors had done. 



