CAROLINA TITMOUSE. 158 
The large size of his bird compared with those met with in the south, 
instantly struck me. 
On my return from Labrador, I immediately proceeded to Charleston in 
South Carolina, with a view of once more visiting the western portions of 
the Floridas and the whole coast of the Gulf of Mexico. In the course of 
conversation with my friend the Reverend John Bachman, I mentioned 
my ideas on the subject of Titmice, when he immediately told me that he 
had for some time been of the same mind. We both went to the woods, 
and procured some specimens. I wrote to several persons of my acquaint- 
ance in Massachusetts, Maine, and Maryland, and before a month had 
elapsed I received an abundant supply of the northern species, preserved 
in spirits, from my friend John M. Bethune of Boston, Lieutenant Green, 
and Colonel Theodore Anderson of Baltimore. We examined and com- 
pared many individuals of both species, and satisfied ourselves that they were 
indeed specifically distinct. 
This new species, the Carolina Titmouse, is a constant inhabitant of the 
Southern States, in which I have traced it from the lower parts of Louisiana 
through the Floridas, as far as the borders of the Roanoke river, which 
separates North Carolina from Virginia ; and it is now ascertained that this 
species reaches eastward as far as the State of New Jersey, where it has been 
procured by my friend Edward Harris. In general it was found only in 
the immediate vicinity of ponds and deep marshy and moist swamps, rarely 
during winter in greater numbers than one pair together, and frequently 
singly. The parent birds separate from the young probably soon after the 
latter are able to provide for themselves. The other species moves in flocks 
during the whole winter, frequenting the orchards, the gardens, or the 
hedges and trees along the roads, entering the villages, and coming to the 
wood-piles of the farmers. The southern species is never met with in such 
places at any time of the year, and is at all seasons a shyer bird, and more 
difficult to be obtained. Its notes are also less sonorous, and less frequent, 
than those of the Titmouse found in the Middle and Northern Districts. 
My friend John Bachman is of opinion that the smaller species partially 
retires from South Carolina during winter, in consequence of the small 
number met with there at that season. On referring to my journals, written 
in the Floridas, in the winter of 1831-32,1 find that they are mentioned as 
being much more abundant than in the Carolinas, and as breeding in the 
swamps as early as the middle of February. 
The Carolina Titmouse breeds in the holes abandoned by the Brown 
headed Nuthatch ; but I have not yet examined either its eggs or its nest 
having at first carelessly supposed the bird to be identical with the northern 
species, as my predecessors had done. 
