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CHICKADEE, OR BLACK-CAPPED TITMOUSE.
he ascended in a spiral line; at length, having gained the tower-
ing summit, while basking in the mild sunbeams, he surveys the
extensive landscape, and almost with the same reverberating
sound as his blows, at intervals, he utters a loud and solitary
'cur'rh, in a tone as solemn as the tolling of the campanero; he
thus hearkens, as it were, to the shrill echoes of his own voice, and,
for an hour at a time, seems alone employed in contemplating, in
cherished solitude and security, the beauties and blessings of the
rising day.
Wilson writes: "This species possesses all the restless and noisy
habits so characteristic of its tribe. It is more shy and less domes-
tic than the Red-headed one (P. erythrocethalus), or any of the
other spotted Woodpeckers. It is also more solitary. It prefers
the largest, high-timbered woods, and tallest decayed trees of the
forest; seldom appearing near the ground, on the fences, or in or-
chards, or open fields; yet, when the trees have been deadened,
and stand pretty thick in fields of Indian corn, as is common in
new settlements, I have observed it to be very numerous, and have
found its stomach sometimes completely filled with that grain. Its
voice is hoarser than any of the others, and its usual note, 'chow,
has often reminded me of the barking of a little lap-dog. It is a
most expert climber, possessing extraordinary strength in the mus-
cles of its feet and claws, and moves about the body and horizon-
tal limbs of the trees, with equal facility, in all directions. It rat-
tles, like the rest of the tribe, on the dead limbs, and with such
violence as to be heard, in still weather, more than half a mile off,
and listens to hear the insects it has alarmed. In the lower side
of some lofty branch that makes a considerable angle with the
horizon, the male and female, in conjunction, dig out a circular
cavity for their nest, sometimes out of the solid wood, but more
generally into a hollow limb, twelve or fifteen inches above where
it becomes solid. This is usually performed early in April. The
female lays five eggs of a pure white, or almost semi-transparent,
and the young generally make their appearance toward the latter
end of May or beginning of June, climbing up to the higher parts
of the tree, being as yet unable to fly. In this situation, they are
fed for several days, and often become the prey of the Hawks.'
From seeing the old ones continuing their caresses after this period,
I believe that they often, and perhaps always, produce two broods
in a season. During the greatest part of the summer, the young
have the ridge of the neck and head of a dull brownish-ash; and
a male of the third year has received his complete colors."
The Red-bellied Woodpecker is ten inches in length, and sev-
enteen in extent; the bill is nearly an inch and a half in length,
wedged at the point, but not quite so much grooved as some
others-strong, and of a bluish-black color; the nostrils are
placed in one of these grooves, and covered with curving tufts of
light-brown hairs, ending in black points; the feathers on the
front stand more erect than usual, and are of a dull yellowish-red;
from them, along the whole upper part of the head and neck, down
the back, and spreading round to the shoulders, is of the most
brilliant, golden, glossy red; the whole cheeks, lined over the eye,
and under side of the neck, are a pale-buff color, which, on the
breast and belly, deepens into a yellowish-ash, stained on the belly
with a blood-red; the vent and thigh feathers are a dull-white,
marked down their centers with heart-formed and long arrow-
pointed spots of black. The back is black, crossed with trans-
verse curving lines of white; the wings are also black; the lesser
wing-coverts, circular-tipped, and the whole primaries and second-
aries beautifully crossed with bars of white, and also tipped with
the same; the rump is white, interspersed with touches of black;
the tail-coverts, white near their extremities. The tail consists of
ten feathers, the two middle ones black, their anterior webs or
vanes white, crossed with diagonal spots of black; then, where
the edges of the two feathers just touch, coincide and form heart-
shaped spots; a narrow sword-shaped line of white runs up the
exterior side of the shafts of the same feathers; the next four
feathers, on each side, are black, the outer edges of the exterior
ones barred with black and white, which, on the lower side, seem
to cross the whole vane, as in the figure; the extremities of th
whole tail, except the outer feathers, are black, sometimes touche
with yellowish or cream color; the legs and feet are of a bluish
green, and the iris of the eye red. The tongue, or os hyoides, passe
up over the hind head, and is attached, by a very elastic, retrac
tile membrane, to the base of the right nostril; the extremity o
the tongue is long, horny, very pointed, and thickly edged wit
barbs; the other part of the tongue is worm-shaped.
Chicadee, or Black-capped Titmouse (Parus atricatillus).
Fig- 4.
This familiar, hardy, and restless little bird chiefly inhabits tli
Northern and Middle States, as well as Canada, in which it
even resident in winter, around Hudson's Bay, and has been mr
with at sixty-two degrees on the northwest coast. In all the Nortl
ern and Middle States, during autumn and winter, families of thee
birds are seen chattering and roving through the woods, busily e
gaged in gleaning their multifarious food, along with the Nu
hatches and Creepers, the whole forming a busy, active, and nois
group, whose manners, food, and habits bring them together in
common pursuit. Their diet varies with the season; for, besic
insects, their larvw, and eggs, of which they are more particular]
fond, in the month of September, they leave the woods, and a
semble familiarly in our orchards and gardens, and even enter tt
thronging cities, in quest of that support which their native fores
now deny them. Large seeds of many kinds, particularly thoi
which are oily, as the seeds of the sun-flower, and pine and spruc
kernels, are now sought after. These seeds, in the usual manna
of the genus, are seized in the claws and held against the brand
until picked open by the bill, to obtain their contents. Fat of v,
rious kinds is also greedily eaten, and they regularly watch ti
retreat of the hog-killers, in the country, to glean up the fragmen
of meat which adhere to the places where the carcases have bet
suspended. At times, they feed upon the wax of the candle-bern
myrtle (myrica cerifera). They likewise pick up crumbs near
the houses, and search the weather-boards, and even the window-
sills, familiarly for their lurking prey, and are particularly fond of
spiders and the eggs of destructive moths, especially those of the
canker-worm, which they greedily destroy in all its stages of ex-
istence. It is said that they sometimes attack their own species,
when the individual is sickly, and aim their blows at the skull
with a view to eat the brain; but this barbarity I have never wit-
nessed. In winter, when satisfied, they will descend to the snow-
bank beneath, and quench their thirst by swallowing small pieces;
in this way, their various and frugal meal is always easily sup
plied; and hardy, and warmly clad in light and very downy
feathers, they suffer little inconvenience from the inclemency of the
seasons. Indeed, in the winter, or about the close of October, they
at times appear so enlivened as already to show their amorous at-
tachment, like our domestic cock, the male approaching his mate
with fluttering and vibrating wings; and in the spring season, the
males have obstinate engagements, darting after each other with
great velocity and anger. Their roost is in the hollow of decayed
trees, where they also breed, making a soft nest of moss, hair, and
feathers, and laying from six to twelve eggs, which are white, with
specks of brown-red. They begin to lay about the middle or close
of April, and though they commonly make use of natural or de-
serted holes of the Woodpecker, yet, at times, they are said to
excavate a cavity for themselves, with much labor. The first brood
take wing about the 7th or ioth of June, and they have sometimes
asecond toward the end of July. The young, as soon as fledged,
have all the external marks of the adult; the head is equally
black, and they chatter and skip about with all the agility and self-
possession of their parents, who appear, nevertheless, very solicit-
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