Page:Condor11(2).djvu/21

 Mar., 1909 55. NOTES ON ..PARUS RUFESCENS IN WESTERN WASHINGTON By J. H. BOWLES HE pretty little Chestnut-backed Titmice are resident thruout the year almost anywhere that they may be found. Altho nowhere very plentiful, they are most abundant on the west side of the Cascade Range, only a few scattered pairs ever appearing on the eastern slope of these mountains. In fact in four trips thru the eastern part of the state my only record is of a pair that I found with their nest and six eggs a short distance from Lake Chelan, in Chelan County. In the vicinity of Tacoma these chickadees may perhaps be found in their center of abundance, but even here they are extremely local in their distribution. On the east side of the city lies the Puyallup Valley, a fertile river bottom clothed with willow and cottonwood and running thru fir-clad hills. To the west of the city is the dry, pebbly prairie country, dotted more or less thickl with small and large patches of fir timber, with here and there a fresh-water pond or small brook. In. the former locality I have only a few records for these birds, taken only in winter, but in the latter section they may be found 'in comparative abundance at any season of the year. In the winter they generally travel in large flocks, seldom associating with the Oregon Chickadee (Parus alricapillus occidentalis), but choosing for their com- panions the Western Goldemcrowned Kinglets (Regulus salrapa olivaceus) and Red-breasted Nuthatches (Silta canadensis). It is not unusual in winter to see flocks of a hundred or more of the three species above mentioned, busily searching for food thru the dense fir forests. At the approach of the nesting season the Chestnut-backs retire to the most arid section of the country to be found, the more exposed it is to the sun the bet- ter, and it is only in such locations that one may ever expect to find them during the breeding season. The nesting site is chosen about the middle of April, most often in the dead stub of some giant fir or oak. On one occasion only have I found the nest near water, this being in a small willow on the edge of a swamp. The birds almost invariably dig their own hole, but I once found a nest in the winter burrow of a Harris Woodpecker. One peculiarity about them, which greatly increas es the difficulty of finding their nests, is that they almost never start the hole for themselves. Instead they select some place where a fragment of the wood or bark has been split away, or else they will often take the oval hole made by the larva of one of our largest beetles. These holes are not altered at the en- trance in any way and, as the dead trees are full of them, it is extremely difficult to locate the one containing the nest. The habits of these titmice differ in many ways from all others of the genus in my experience, but in no feature is this more marked than in what may rightly be termed the habit o nesting in colonies. In one locality during the spring of 1908 I found no less than seven occupied nests inside a very small area, some not more than fifty yards apart. It was in an extremely dry prairie district that extended for miles in all directions; but I found no other nests during the entire season altho the surrounding country appeared precisely the same. This colony was unusual for the reason that all the nests were very near the ground. The lowest being two feet up in a tiny fir stub, while the highest was only nine feet up in the stump of what was once a majestic oak. The highest nest I have ever seen in the vicinity of Tacoma was twenty feet from the ground, something very unusual as the average height is not above ten