148 
BLACK-CAP TITMOUSE. 
pleasure in his company. If, as is usually the case, he is provided with a 
dinner, the Chickadee at once evinces its anxiety to partake of it, and loses 
no opportunity of accomplishing its object, although it sets about it with 
much circumspection, as if it were afraid of being detected, and brought to 
punishment. A woodcutter in Maine assured me, that one day he happened 
to be at work, and had scarcely hung up his basket of provisions, when it 
was observed by a flock of these birds, which, having gathered into it at 
once, attacked a piece of cold beef; but after each peck, he saw their heads 
raised above the' edge, as if to guard against the least appearance of danger. 
After picking until they were tired or satisfied, they left the basket and 
perched directly over his fire, but out of the direction of the smoke. There 
they sat enjoying themselves and ruffling their feathers to allow the warmth 
more easy access to their skin, until he began his dinner, when they imme- 
diately alighted near him, and in the most plaintive tones seemed to solicit 
a portion. 
Wilson and others have spoken of this species as being addicted to 
moving in the company of our smaller Woodpeckers and Brown Creepers, 
and this in such a way as to induce most readers to believe the act to be 
customary ; but I have often found groups of them, at times composed of 
more than a dozen, without any such companions, and I should be more 
inclined to think that the Downy Woodpecker, and the Brown Creeper, 
seek the company of the Titmice, rather than that the latter associate with 
them. Often indeed have I watched the busy Chickadees, as they proceeded 
from tree to tree, and from branch to branch, whether by the road-side or in 
the interior of the forest, when no other birds were with them. The light 
rustling sound of their concave wings would intimate their approach as well 
as their retreat, as gaily one after another they passed onwards from one spot 
to another, chattering, peeping everywhere, and determined as it were, not 
to suffer a chink to pass without inspection. Now hanging, back downward, 
at the extremity of a twig, its feet almost up to its bill, it would peck at a 
berry or a seed until it had devoured it, or it had fallen to the ground : 
should the latter be the case, the busy bird would at once fly down, and 
hammer at the fruit. To the Black-cap Titmouse the breaking of a hazel- 
nut is quite a pleasure, and I have repeatedly seen the feat accomplished not 
only by a bird in its natural state, but by one kept in confinement. 
Courageous and at times exceedingly tyrannical, it will attack young birds, 
break their skulls, and feed upon their, flesh, as I have more than once 
witnessed. In this habit they resemble the Jays, but in every other they 
differ entirely from those birds, although the Prince of Musignano has 
thought fit to assimilate the two groups. The Chickadee feeds on insects, 
their larvae, and eggs, as well as on every sort of small fruit, or berries, 
