26 
FARMERS* BULLETIN 755 . 
(caterpillars) in 138, or about two-thirds of those examined. The month of greatest 
consumption is October, when they amount to more than three-fourths of the food 
(78.1 per cent). The month of least consumption is December, when they still aggre¬ 
gate more than a tenth of the yearly food (11.74 per cent). The average for tne year 
(44.42 per cent) is exceeded by cuckoos, but by few if any other birds. Chickadees 
have a habit of beating their prey to pieces on a branch of a tree before swallowing it, 
so that the stomachs contain only fragments not easy to identify. It is probable that 
in these were many notorious pests, for the pupae of codling moths were recognized in 
five stomachs and the eggs that produce one of the tent caterpillars in two. 
Like many other tree-inhabiting species, the Carolina chickadee eats very few 
grasshoppers, but some were taken irregularly through the year (1.04 per cent). In 
five months, including August, the grasshopper month, none were eaten at all, and but 
few at other times. So far as stomach records show no genuine grasshoppers were eaten, 
but only some of their allies in their lowest or first stage, viz, the egg. In 11 stomachs 
were found the eggs of katydids; in 5 the egg cases of cockroaches; in 1 a grasshopper s 
egg; and in another a cricket’s jaw. 
Flies are practically ignored. What were probably the eggs of a crane fly were found 
in one stomach, but no adult flies were noted. 
Spiders seem very palatable to the chickadee, being eaten every month and showing 
a higher percentage (10.9 per cent) in the stomachs than any other animal food except 
caterpillars. In five stomachs collected in March they amount to 44.6 per cent, but a 
greater number of stomachs would probably modify this record. One stomach was 
practically filled with the remains of sowbugs. These appear to be the only animal 
food eaten that can not be obtained from a tree, shrub, or weed, and it is not clear 
how the chickadee could get them, for sowbugs are essentially terrestrial in habit and 
are usually found under a stone, clod, or mass of practically decayed vegetation. A 
few bones and other tissues of a small unidentified vertebrate taken in June complete 
the animal food. 
The vegetable food of the Carolina chickadee consists chiefly of fruit and seeds. 
Blackberries or raspberries, found in two stomachs; blueberries, in one; and fruit 
pulp not further identified, in five, constitute 2.17 per cent of the food for the year. 
Seeds of poison ivy (10.07 per cent for the year) appear to be a favorite food in the colder 
months, but only the waxy coating is eaten. This is taken off and swallowed and the 
real seed rejected, so that the bird does not aid in the distribution of this noxious plant 
as do so many birds that swallow the seeds and afterwards either disgorge them or pass 
them through the alimentary canal to fall and germinate in a different locality. 
Other seeds, most of them so broken and ground up as to be unidentifiable, were 
eaten to the extent of 12.38 per cent, chiefly in the colder months. In nine stomachs 
taken during this season were pieces of liverwort, a plant of the lower order that grows 
upon the bark of trees or damp rocks. This seems a very curious food for a bird, and 
is probably taken when other supplies are scarce. 
In a resume of the food of the Carolina chickadee, one is impressed with the fact 
that a large proportion consists of the eggs, pupae, and larvae of noxious insects. As 
an enemy of caterpillars the bird has few peers. It also destroys a great many of 
those two pests of horticulture, plant lice and scales.— f. e. l. b. 
TUFTED TITMOUSE . 1 
The tufted titmouse inhabits the whole of eastern United States from the Gulf to 
southern Iowa and northern New Jersey. It is contented with various kinds of sur¬ 
roundings and will nest as readily in a box erected in the dooryard or garden as in the 
midst of the deep forest. Its preferred nesting site is an old woodpecker-hole or an 
unoccupied box put up for a wren, and it usually remains in the vicinity of its nest 
1 Bxolophus bicolor. 
