754 Home Nature-Study Course. 



3. Does it ascend a tree in a spiral? 



4. What distinguishes it in coloring from the chickadee? 



5. How does it benefit the farmer and orchardist? 



the chickadee 



Of all the winter birds the chickadee is easily the favorite. No 

 matter how cold or gloomy the day, its cheerful song and delightful 

 little personality charms us, and makes us forget that there is anything 

 in this world that is disagreeable. It not only seems friendly, but it is 

 friendly, for it devotes its entire energies all winter to hunting for insect 

 eggs or hibernating insects. It makes a great specialty of cankerworm 

 eggs, and an experiment made by the Massachusetts State Board of 

 Agriculture, demonstrated that orchards to which chickadees were en- 

 ticed during the winter were almost entirely free from this insect, while 

 neighboring orchards were destroyed by it. It is estimated that one 

 chickadee will destroy five thousand five hundred insect eggs in one day. 



QUESTIONS TO BE ANSV^ERED FROM OBSERVATION 



1. What is the chief diiTerence in markings and coloring between 

 the chickadee and the nuthatch? 



2. Do the chickadees frequent the same portions of the tree that 

 the nuthatch does? 



3. Compare the beak of the chickadee with that of the downy and 

 tell why it is better adapted to the needs of its owner. 



4. The chickadee has another common note besides the familiar 

 " chick-a-dee-dee-dee ;" what is it? 



5. Why is the chickadee especially valuable to the horticulturist? 



6. Have you put suet on your trees this winter to feed the birds ? 



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