98 



POLIOPTIL.-E. Sclater. Gnatcatchers. 



13. P. C^RUL^. (L.) Sclater. Bliie-gray Gnatcatcher, Clear ashy blue, 

 whitish below; male with sides of head and crown black, outer tail feathers white. 

 T. 4%; W. 2; T. 23^. A sprightly bird with a squeaky voice, "like a mouse 

 with the toothache," but a fine singer, for all that. A common migrant in May 

 and September; also, nesting in our heavy timber. Shot usually from the tops of 

 tall dead trees. The nest is a beauty, only, if at all, excelled by the humming-bird's. 

 It is a truncated cone, large for the bird, felted inside with spider's web and thistle 

 down, a deep and purse-like cavity contracted at top, and containing usually five 

 half-inch eggs, white, with lilac and red speckles and dashes. Like the humming- 

 bird's, the outer walls are done with stucco-work of lichens, which perfect its 

 beauty, and give it the look of a natural excrescence on the limb. 



FAMILY IV. PARID^. 



{The Titmice.) 



Small birds, under 7 inches; restless, noisy, much like jays: scarcely migratory. 

 Species 75 or more, in both continents. About 10 species in N. A., 3 in Indiana. 

 At once known by the 10 primaries, the first much shorter than second; wings 

 rounded, not longer than the rounded tail ; tarsus scutellate, not longer than 

 middle toe and claw. Toes soldered at base, palm-like beneath. Genus Lop- 

 hopanes is crested, chiefly lead-gray, paler below. Genus Farus is not crested; 

 crown, chin and throat black or brown. 



LOPHOPHANES. Kaup. Ttifted Titmice. 



14. L. BICOLOR, (L.) Bonaparte, Tufted Titmouse. Forehead alone black ; 

 whitish below ; sides reddish. L. 63^ ; W. 31^ ; T. 31^. In every southern woods ; 

 remarkable for its loud, ringing notes. Rare in northern Indiana ; only a few 

 straggling parties rambling north from the wooded central and southern regions, 

 where it is one of the characteristic species. 



PAP US. Linnseus. Chickadees. 



15. P. ATRICAPILLUS, (L.) Titmouse. Black-Capped Chickadee. Grayish 

 ash; wings and tail plain, with whitish edgings; crown, neck, nape, chin and 

 throat black. L. 5; W, 2^; T. 2^. Resident north, but more abundant in winter 

 and during the migrations, when it may reach even to the south of the State. The 

 variety carolinensis, Carolina chickadee, is a rare summer visitant in the pine woods 

 of Lake county, but a resident of central and southern Indiana. 



Roaming in flocks of a dozen or so, with the tufted titmouse, they form a notable 

 feature of our avian-fauna. 



They are hardy, active, social birds — in winter no less than in summer "merrily 

 singing their chick-a-dee-dee," "defiers of both frost and heat," and, continues 

 Burroughs, " diligent searchers after truth in the shape of eggs and larvae of 

 insects." Emerson's poem, "The Titmouse," shows the points of this bird both 



