BLACK-CAP TITMOUSE. 
119 
including grapes, acorns, and the seeds of various pines. I have seen them 
eat the seeds of the sunflower, the pokeberry, and pears., as well as flesh 
of all kinds. Indeed it may be truly called omnivorous. Often, like Jays, 
you may see them perched as it were upon their food, and holding it beneath 
their feet while pecking' at it ; but no Jays are seen to hang head downwards 
at the end of a branch. 
My friend Thomas M'Culloch, Esq., of Halifax, in Nova Scotia, has 
favoured me with the following interesting remarks having reference to this 
species. “Sometimes I have been inclined to think, that the sight of this 
bird is comparatively imperfect, and that it is chiefly indebted to some of the 
other senses for its success in obtaining subsistence. This idea may not be 
correct, but it seems to derive some support from the little incident which I 
am about to mention. While standing at the edge of a patch of newly- 
felled wood, over which the fire had recently passed, and left every thing 
black in its course, I observed a small flock of these birds coming from the 
opposite side of the clearing. Being dressed in black and aware of their 
familiarity, I stood perfectly motionless, for the purpose of ascertaining how 
near they would approach. Stealing from branch to branch, and peering for 
food among the crevices of the prostrate trunks, as they passed along, 
onward they came until the foremost settled upon a small twig a few feet 
from the spot upon which I stood. After looking about for a short time it 
flew and alighted just below the lock of a double-barrelled gun which I held 
in a slanting direction below my arm. Being unable however to obtain a 
hold, it slided down to the middle of the piece, and then flew away, jerking 
its tail, and apparently quite unconscious of having been so near the deadly 
weapon. In this country these birds seem to be influenced by a modification 
of that feeling by which so many others are induced to congregate at the 
close of autumn and seek a more congenial clime. At that period they 
collect in large flocks and exhibit all the hurry and bustle of travellers, who 
are bent upon a distant journey. If these flocks do not migrate, their union 
is soon destroyed, for when the Black-cap Titmice again appear, it is in 
small flocks; their former restlessness is gone, and they now exhibit their 
wonted care and deliberation in searching for food.” 
The nest of this species, whether it be placed in the hole of a Woodpecker 
or squirrel, or in a place dug by itself, is seldom found at a height exceeding 
ten feet. Most of those which I have seen were in low broken or hollowed 
stumps only a few feet high. The materials of which it is composed vary 
in different districts, but are generally the hair of quadrupeds, in a con- 
siderable quantity, and disposed in the shape of a loose bag or purse, as in 
most other species which do not hang their nests outside. Some persons 
have said that they lay their eggs on the bare wood, or on the chips left by 
Vol. II. 26 
