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Volvime V Jtjly-Anag'vist, 1903 Nvimber A 
Call Notes of the Bush-Tit 
BY JOSEPH GRINNELL 
(Read before the A. O. U — Cooper Club Convention, May i6, 1903) 
D uring three-fourths of the year the California bush-tits forage about in 
flocks. These ba ids may consist of as many as thirty individuals, but gen- 
erally there are from fifteen to twenty. Although we call them flocks, they 
are not such in the sense that blackbirds or linnets form flocks; for the bush-tits 
never bunch together and mount high in air to take a prolonged flight. But they 
form a loitering company, .scattered among several scrub-oaks or brush-clumps. 
There may be a general onward movement, for if a person locates himself in the 
midst of the restless drove, in a few minutes they will have almost all gone off in 
some particular direction. A few stragglers sometimes forget themselves, and sud- 
denly feeling lost, fly helter-skelter after the main company with excited calls. 
Evidently there are some, perhaps two or three adults, who take the initiative, and 
involuntarily direct the movements of the younger or more timid individuals which 
follow along after. During such slowly moving excursions, each individual is 
rapidly gleaning through the foliage, assuming all possible attitudes in its search 
for tiny insects among leaves and twigs. The attention of each is on himself as a 
usual thing, but each is continually uttering a faint but characteristic simple loca- 
tion-note, a note of all’s-well which indicates safety and also the whereabouts of 
the main body to stragglers, and each individual to any other. 
At times, especially towards evening, the flocks become more restless and 
move along from bush to bush and tree to tree much more rapidly than when feed- 
ing, the birds straggling hurriedly after each other in irregular succession. Dur- 
ing these hurried cross-country excursions, the simple location-notes are pronounced 
louder and are interlarded at frequent intervals with a shrill quavering note. The 
faster the band travels, the louder and more oft-repeated becomes these all-import- 
