GENUS 45. PARUS. TITMOUSE. 
SPECIES 1 . P. JiTRICJiP ILEUS. 
BLACK-CAPT TITMOUSE. 
[Plate VIII.— Fig. 4.] 
Parus atricapillus, Linn. Syst. i, 341, 6. — Gmel. Syst. i, 1008.~ 
La Mesange a tete noire de Canada, Buffon, v, 408. — Canada 
Titmouse, Jlrct. Zool. ii, JVIj. 328. — Lath. ''Syn. iv, 542, 9.- — 
Peace’s Museum, JS'o. 7380. 
This is one of our resident birds, active, noisy and restless, 
hardy beyond any of his size, braving the severest cold of our 
continent as far north as the country round Hudson’s Bay, and 
always appearing most lively in the coldest weather. The males 
have a variety of very sprightly notes, which cannot indeed be 
called a song, but rather a lively, frequently repeated, and of- 
ten varied twitter. They are most usually seen during the fall 
and winter, when they leave the depth of the woods, and ap- 
proach nearer to the scenes of cultivation. At such seasons they 
abound among evergreens, feeding on the seeds of the pine tree; 
they are also fond of sun-flower seeds, and associate in parties 
of six, eight, or more, attended by the two species of Nuthatch 
already described, the Crested Titmouse, Brown Creeper, and 
small Spotted Woodpecker; the whole forming a very nimble 
and restless company, whose food, manners and dispositions 
are pretty much alike. About tbe middle of April they begin 
to build, choosing the deserted hole of a squirrel or Woodpeck- 
ei’, and sometimes with incredible labour digging out one for 
tberhselves. The female lays six white eggs, marked with min- 
ute specks of red; the first brood appears about tbe beginning 
of June, and the second towards the end of July; the whole of 
VOL. II.— 3 E 
