484 
ECONOMIC RELATIONS OF OUR BIRDS. 
14. Parus atricapillus, Linn. BL4CK-CAPPED CHICKADEE; TIT¬ 
MOUSE. Group I. Class b. 
The Titmouse, with its sympathy-enlisting “ chick-a-clee-clee,” is one of our 
abundant, hardy residents and most useful little foresters. During the breeding 
season it is principally confined to larch and pine tracts; but at other times it 
searches for food wherever trees may be found — along fences, in orchards, 
about dwellings and among village shade-trees, as well as in groves and wood¬ 
lands. At Ithaca, N. Y., it has been a frequent visitor to the University camj)us 
all through the spring and summer. Its small size, its method of feeding, and 
its great agility enable it to perform a veiy useful and special work. In feeding 
it searches most diligently among the outermost branches of the trees, where it 
often hangs back downward from the leaves to obtain thoss small larvae and 
insects which are accessible only with difficulty to larger and more clumsy birds. 
The habit which it has of picking open buds for insects which they often contain 
has led some to infer that it is injurious. Whatever injury it may do in this 
manner must certainly be trifling when compared with the service it renders. 
If the Chickadee is as destructive to insect eggs as it is said to be, its winter res¬ 
idence and its searching habits must lend great additional value to its services. 
Evidently if this bird could be induced to so change its breeding habits as to nest 
commonly in orchards and about dwellings, it would become one of the most 
valuable aids in destroying noxious insects. It does not appear improbable, in 
view of the fact that these birds build in sheltered situations, even though 
usually excavated by themselves, that they might not come, in time, to nest in 
houses like Bluebirds and Wrens, if they were properly encouraged to do so. 
Could such change be induced, we might then bring them readily into closer 
relationship with us; for they are already becoming familiar in cultivated dis¬ 
tricts out of the breeding season. I believe that an experiment worthy of thorough 
trial in this connection would be to put up in their breeding haunts some sort of 
cheap houses, perhaps imitating interiorly their own excavations, to ascertain 
whether it is not possible to induce them to nest in such places. If such a 
change could be brought about, first in their breeding haunts, we might then 
expect to bring them about our dwellings. No very marked immediate results 
could be expected from such a course; but future prosperity is not the last con¬ 
sideration with which we should deal. 
Of twelve specimens examined, seven had eaten fourteen larvae, ten of which 
were caterpillars; seven, thirteen beetles; two, two spiders; one, three heteroi>- 
terous insects related to the genus Tingis; and one, five eggs of some insect. 
One individual of the twelve had in its stomach a few seeds. 
Food according toothers: Pine seeds, sunflower seeds, insects and their larvae 
(Wils.). Nuts, numerous insects and their larvae (De Kay). Eggs of the moth 
of the destructive leaf-rolling caterpillar and of the apple-tree moth and canker- 
worm; larvae which infest buds, caterpillars, flies and grubs (Samuels). Though 
omnivorous, they prefer insects to all other food. Destroys the chrysalis of the 
woolly-bear, Leucarctia acrcea (Brewer). Insects,—their larvae and eggs — ber¬ 
ries, fruit, acorns, seeds of pine and sunflower, and poke-berries (Aud.). Canker- 
worms (Maynard). Caterpillars and plant-lice (Forbes). 
15. Parus Hudsonicus, Forst. HUDSON’S BAY TITMOUSE. Group II. 
Class a. 
This species is introduced in this connection on the authority of Dr. Hoy, who 
says: “ A small party of this northern species visited Racine during the un¬ 
usually cold January of 1852.” Mr. Nelson states that Dr. Velie has since 
observed it at Rock Island, Illinois. 
