TITMICE 
487 
This is the so-called ‘Phoebe’ note, which, it may be added, is uttered 
by both sexes. Soon he comes to me, mildly inquisitive at first, 
looking about for the friend or foe whose call has attracted him. In 
an unconcerned way he hops from limb to limb, whistling softly the 
while, picking an insect’s egg from beneath a leaf here or larva from a 
crevice in the bark there, all the time performing acrobatic feats of 
which an accomplished gymnast might be proud. Finally his curiosity 
becomes aroused, he ceases feeding, and gives his entire attention to the 
discovery of the bird who so regularly replies to him. Hopping down to 
a limb within three feet of my head, he regards me with puzzled intent- 
ness; his little black eyes twinkle with intelligence, he changes his call, 
and questions me with a series of chick-a-dees , liquid gurgles, and odd 
chuckling notes which it is beyond my power to answer, and finally, 
becoming discouraged, he refuses to renew our whistled conversation 
and retreats to the woods. 
On several occasions Chickadees have flown down and perched upon 
my hand. During the few seconds they remained there I became rigid 
with the emotion of this novel experience. It was a mark of confidence 
which seemed to initiate me into the ranks of woodland dwellers. 
1900. Chapman, F. M., Bird Studies with a Camera, 147-61 (nesting). 
1911. Stanwood, C. J., Journ. Me. Orn. Soc., XIII, 25-32 (nesting). 
736. Penthestes earolinensis carolinensis (Aud.). Carolina Chicka- 
dee. — Similar to the preceding species, but smaller; greater wing-coverts 
not margined with whitish; wing and tail-feathers with less white on their 
outer vanes. L., 4-06-4*75; W., 2*20-2-48; T., 1*88-2*12; B., *30-*32. 
Range. — SE. U. S. Breeds in Carolinian and Austroriparian faunas 
from cen. Mo., Ind., cen. Ohio, Pa. (sparingly), and cen. N. J., s. to se. La., 
the Gulf coast, and n. Fla. 
Washington, very common P. R., particularly in winter. 
Nest, of grasses, fine strips of bark, feathers, hair, etc., in holes in trees, 
stumps, etc. Eggs, 5-8, similar in color to those of P. atricapillus. Date, Mt. 
Pleasant, S. C., Mch. 23; Iredell Co., N. C., Apl. 13; D. C., Apl. 24. 
My experience with this southern Chickadee has been confined 
largely to Florida. There I found it a comparatively shy bird, with 
notes quite unlike those of P. atricapillus. Instead of the two clear 
whistles which atricapillus in New Jersey utters, the Florida bird 
repeates four rather tremulous notes, aiid there is also a substantial 
difference in its other calls, one of which resembles the words my watcher 
key , my watcher key. 
Dr. C. W. Richmond writes me that at Washington the chick-d-dee 
call of carolinensis is higher pitched and more hurriedly given than 
that of atricapillus , and that the whistle consists of three notes, bat in 
New Jersey, Mr. W. DeW. Miller tells me that it consists of four. 
Writing from the mountains of North Carolina, where both species 
occur together, Mr. Brewster says: “In one place a male of each species 
was singing in the same tree the low, plaintive, tswee-dee-twsee-dee of 
the P. carolinensis , contrasting sharply with the ringing te-derry of its 
more northern cousin” ( The Auk , 1886, p. 177). 
