BLACK-CAPT TITMOUSE. 
139 
triangular patch of white, ending at the nostril; bill, black 
and short ; tongue, truncate ; rest of the upper parts, lead 
coloured or cinereous, slightly tinged with brown; wings, 
edged with white ; breast, belly, and vent, yellowish white ; 
legs, light blue ; eyes, dark hazel. The male and female are 
nearly alike. The figure in the plate renders any farther 
description unnecessary. 
The upper parts of the head of the young are for some 
time of a dirty brownish tinge ; and in this state they agree 
so exactly with the Parus Hudsonicus ,* described by Latham, 
as to afford good grounds for suspecting them to be the same. 
These birds sometimes fight violently with each other, and 
are known to attack young and sickly birds, that are incapable 
of resistance, always directing their blows against the skull.f 
Being in the woods one day, I followed a bird for some time, 
the singularity of whose notes surprised me. Having shot 
him from off the top of a very tall tree, I found it to be the 
Black-headed Titmouse, with a long and deep indentation in 
the cranium, the skull having been evidently, at some former 
time, drove in and fractured, but was now perfectly healed. 
Whether or not the change of voice could be owing to this 
circumstance, I cannot pretend to decide. 
* Hudson Bay Titmouse, Synopsis, ii. 557. 
f I have frequently heard this stated regarding the British Titmice, par- 
ticularly the greater, but I have never been able to trace it to any authentic 
source ; it is perhaps exaggerated. Feeding on carrion, which they have also 
been represented to do, must in a wild state be from necessity. Mr Audubon 
asserts it as a fact, with regard to the P. bicolor. Mr Selby has seen P. major 
' eat young birds Ed. 
