1^2 The Ottawa Naturalist. [Oct. and Nov. 



time in fighting. Satan has a hard time of it in " some mischief 

 finding " for these little fellows to do, for their hands are never 

 idle, as they hurry through the woods, running up or around the 

 trunks of trees or hanging head downwards from a slender twig, 

 never still for more than an instant, as they peer into every tuft 

 of moss, every crack or cranny in the bark, along the twigs, under 

 the bud scales of deciduous trees or among the leaves of ever- 

 greens, talking cheerfully to themselves and each other all the 

 time as they carry out their useful mission in clearing the trees 

 and shrubs of countless insect enemies : woe to the luckless 

 caterpillar, chrysalis, spider, or beetle which comes within the 

 range of their sharp black eyes. Nothing comes amiss to these 

 insatiable hunters, from the minute, shining black eggs of an aphis 

 to the fat chrysalis of a Cecropia Emperor Moth ; with deft blows 

 the hard sharp beak soon penetrates the thick silken cocoon and 

 in a very short time the marauder is away looking for another 

 victim. Dr. Clarence Weed publishes in this interesting bulletin 

 the results of some careful investigations which he has carried 

 out as to the winter food of the chickadee. He shows that more 

 than one half of the food of this bird during the winter months 

 c-onsists of insects, a large proportion being in the form of eggs. 

 Vegetation of various sorts made up a little less than a 

 quarter of the food, and two thirds of this quarter consisted of 

 the buds or bud scales which were believed to have been acci- 

 dentally eaten along with the eggs of plant-lice. These eggs 

 made up more than one fifth of the entire food and formed the 

 most remarkable element of the bill of fare. This destruction of 

 myriads of eggs of the plant-lice which infest fruit, shade and 

 forest trees is probably the most important service which the 

 chickadee renders during his winter residence. More than 450 

 ot these eggs are sometimes eaten by one bird in a single day 

 as well as the eggs of many other kinds of our most important 

 insect enemies of the forest, garden and orchard Dr. Weed 

 figures in his bulletin some twigs of various trees, upon which 

 the eggs of insects have been deposited. Among these are 

 represented the egg masses of the tent caterpillars and the Fall 



