(_Parus bicolor_) Titmouse family
_Called also_: CRESTED TITMOUSE; CRESTED TOMTIT
(Illustration facing p. 79)
_Length_--6 to 6.5 inches. About the size of the English sparrow.
_Male and Female_--Crest high and pointed. Leaden or ash-gray
above; darkest on wings and tail. Frontlet, bill, and
shoulders black; space between eyes gray. Sides of head dull
white. Under parts light gray; sides yellowish, tinged with red.
_Range_--United States east of plains, and only rarely seen so
far north as New England.
_Migrations_--October. April. Winter resident, but also found
throughout the year in many States.
"A noisy titmouse is Jack Frost's trumpeter" may be one of those few
weather-wise proverbs with a grain of truth in them. As the chickadee
comes from the woods with the frost, so it may be noticed his cousin,
the crested titmouse, is in more noisy evidence throughout the winter.
One might sometimes think his whistle, like a tugboat's, worked by
steam. But how effectually nesting cares alone can silence it in
April!
Titmice always see to it you are not lonely as you walk through the
woods. This lordly tomtit, with his jaunty crest, keeps up a
persistent whistle at you as he flits from tree to tree, leading you
deeper into the forest, calling out "_Here-here-here!_" and looking
like a pert and jaunty little blue jay, minus his gay clothes. Mr.
Nehrling translates one of the calls "_Heedle-dee-dle-dee-dle-dee!_"
and another "_Peto-peto-peto-daytee-daytee!_" But it is at the former,
sharply whistled as the crested titmouse gives it, that every dog
pricks up his ears.
Comparatively little has been written about this bird, because it is
not often found in New England, where most of the bird _litterateurs_
have lived. South of New York State, however, it is a common resident,
and much respected for the good work it does in destroying injurious
insects, though it is more fond of varying its diet with nuts,
berries, and seeds than that all-round benefactor, the chickadee.
[Illustration: CHICKADEE]
[Illustration: _National Association of Audubon Societies_
_See page 37_ TUFTED TITMOUSE]