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CRESTED TITMOUSE. 
Parus bicolor, Linn. 
PLATE CXXY. — Male axd Female. 
Although’ this smart little bird breeds in the State of Louisiana and the 
adjacent districts, it is not there found in so great numbers as in the Middle 
States, and farther to the northward. It generally prefers the depth of the 
forests during summer, after which it approaches the plantations, and even 
resorts to the granaries for corn. 
Its flight is short, the bird being seldom seen on the wing long enough to 
cross a field of moderate extent. It is performed by repeated flaps of the 
■wings, accompanied by jerks of the body and tail, and occasions a rustling 
noise as it takes place from one tree to another. It moves along the 
branches, searches in the chinks, flies to the end of twigs and hangs to them 
by its feet, whilst the bill is engaged in detaching a beech or hazel nut, an 
acorn or a chinquapin, upon all of which it feeds, removing them to a large 
branch, where, having secured them in a crevice, it holds them with both 
feet, and breaks the shell by repeated blows of its bill. They are to be seen 
thus employed for many minutes at a time. They move about in little 
companies formed of the parents and their young, eight or ten together, and 
escorted by the Nuthatch or the Downy Woodpecker. It is pleasing to 
listen to the sound produced by their labour, which in a calm day may be 
heard at the distance of twenty or thirty yards. If a nut or an acorn is 
accidentally dropped, the bird flies to the ground, picks it up, and again 
returns to a branch. They also alight on the ground or on dry leaves, to 
look for food, after the trees become bare, and hop about with great nimble- 
ness, going to the margins of the brooks to drink, and when unable to do 
so, obtaining water by stooping from the extremity of a twig hanging over 
the stream. In fact, they appear to prefer this latter method, and are also 
fond of drinking the drops of rain or dew as they hang at the extremities 
of the leaves. 
Their notes are rather musical than otherwise, the usual one being loud 
and mellow. They do not use the tee-tee-tee of their relative the Black- 
capped Titmouse, half so often as the latter does, but emit a considerable 
variety of sounds, many of which, if the bird from which they come does 
not happen to be known to the listener, are apt to induce disappointment in 
■r 
