One can hardly mistake the tufted tit for any other bird, for he is very noisy the most of the year, the exceptions being the coldest part of mid-winter and during the breeding season, for his songs or whistles are peculiar to him. True, his chick-a-dee-dee closely resembles the chickadee's song to the uninitiated, but the clearly whistled _pe-to_, _pe-to_, _pe-to_, or _ee-to_, _ee-to_, _ee-to_, or _pe-ter_, _pe-ter_, _pe-ter_, or _pe-ter_, _e-ter_, _e-ter_ will at once discover him. It is well worth one's while to write out the many different variations that may be heard proceeding from one bird. Another favorite one, judging from the frequency of its use, is: _Pe-dl'_, _pe-dl'_, _pe-dl'_, or _te-dl'_, _e-dl'_ _e-dl'_, and occasionally this: _Chee-pa_, _chee-pa_, _chee-pa_. In short, he seems to have a song to suit every occasion. Like the chickadee, he delights in scrambling about the trees in the most reckless fashion, hanging head down as handily as a nuthatch. His crest gives him a more stately air than any of his cousins, but his inquisitiveness is equal to all combined. One cannot enter the woods but he will be sought out by this active denizen and accompanied hither and thither with not so much as a "by your leave." His habits seem to vary with locality, or possibly more exactly, with abundance. In this part of northern Ohio, where the species is not more than fairly common, the birds rarely enter the villages, and they nest almost exclusively in the woods. I am informed that farther south and west they are often seen in villages, and nest there in boxes provided, as well as in the woods. The nest is placed within a box or hollow in a tree, a deserted woodpecker's hole being preferred, where leaves, strips of bark, feathers, hair, or almost any soft, warm materials are arranged carefully, the coarser material outward, the finer and warmer inside. The eggs range from five to eight in number, and are creamy white, rather coarsely and evenly marked with shades of rufous brown. They average about .73 × .54 of an inch. It is said that the male bird never assists in building the nest, but sings to cheer his mate, thus revealing the whereabouts of the nest. While the northern Ohio woods are incomplete without a company of these cheerful birds, I have looked in vain for them during the early summer months in some years. In winter they range the woods for food, penetrating to every portion of it, stowing themselves away in some warm hollow in a tree at night, but in the nesting season they are confined to the region of the nest, and so are not readily seen. [Illustration: FROM COL. F. M. WOODRUFF. CHICAGO COLORTYPE CO., CHIC. & NEW YORK. TUFTED TITMOUSE. 10/11 Life-size. COPYRIGHT 1899, NATURE STUDY PUB. CO., CHICAGO.] EPITAPH ON THE HARE.