84 BIRDS OF NEW ENGLAND AND EASTERN NEW YORK 



notes are lower and more drawled. A short warbling song 

 which seems to correspond to the i^liee-hee of the common 

 Chickadee is occasionally heard from this species. 



Chickadee. Tarus atricapilhis 



Ad. — Top of head and throat Mack ; sides of head, and belly 

 white ; back, wiugs, and tail gray ; wiug-feathers edged with 

 white ; flanks washed with light brownish, especially in the fall. 



Nest, in a hole in a tree. Eggs, often as many as eight, white, 

 spotted with reddish-brown. 



The Chickadee is a permanent resident throughout New 

 England and New York ; in the southern portions of its 

 range it is less common in summer than in winter. At this 

 season little flocks of five or six pass through the woodland, 

 orchards, and plantations, often accompanied by Kinglets, a 

 Brown Creeper, a Downy Woodpecker, or a Nuthatch. As 

 spring approaches, the winter bands separate into pairs, 

 which then often retire from the neighborhood of villages, 

 so that a notion prevails that the Chickadee is only a winter 

 resident. The pair, too, become very silent ; the male, how- 

 ever, occasionally utters his whistled phee-hee. The nest is 

 placed either in a natural cavity or in a hole picked out of 

 a soft birch stub by the birds themselves. The pure whistle 

 above described, though uttered oftenest in March and April, 

 may be heard in any month of the year. Besides this song 

 the Chickadee has various little lisping calls, a note something 

 like the syllables tout de suite, and the well-known ts'ic-a 

 dee-dee. When feeding, the Chickadee has a habit of cling- 

 ing upside down to the tips of twigs ; occasionally it flies 

 to a limb and there hammers open a seed or a tough cocoon. 

 If bones, suet, or broken nuts are hung on the trees near a 

 window. Chickadees will become constant and familiar vis- 

 itors throughout the winter. The Chickadee is readily told 

 by its black throat and top of head, and white cheeks. 



