24 Birds Every Child Should Know 
drab ; but the little titmouse, who is the size of 
an English sparrow, may be named at once by 
the gray pointed crest that makes him look so 
pert and jaunty. When he hangs head down- 
ward from the trapeze on the oak tree, this 
little gray acrobat’s peaked cap seems to be 
falling off; whereas the black skull cap on the 
smaller chickadee fits close to his head no 
matter how much he turns over the bar and^ 
dangles. 
Neither one of these cousins is a carpenter 
like the woodpecker. The titmouse has a short, 
stout bill without a chisel on it, which is why 
it cannot chip out a hole for a nest in a tree 
trunk or old stump unless the wood is much 
decayed. You see why these birds are so 
pleased to find a deserted woodpecker’s hole. 
Not alone are they saved the trouble of making 
one, but a deep tunnel in a tree-trunk means 
security for their babies against hawks, crows, 
jays, and other foes, as well as against wind and 
rain. 
When you find a flock of either chickadees 
or titmice, you may be sure it is made up chiefly, 
if not entirely, of the birds of one or two broods 
of the same parents. Their families are usually 
large and the members devoted to one another. 
Titmice nest in April so that you cannot tell the 
brothers and sisters from the father and mother 
when the troupe of acrobats leave the woods in 
