13 



forth. The little birds were fed. on an average, about once 

 in every four minutes, the adults timing their visits so that 

 one was nearly always present. 



Mrs. Chickadee nearly always brought a load of tiny 

 insects, most often plant lice. — so small that she must 

 have brought from twenty to forty at each trip. Her mate 

 was a philosopher, or it may have been that he was simply 

 lazy, for he always brought single, large, white grubs, 

 which certainly must have been easier to collect and perhaps 

 were more filling than quantities of mites. 



Fig. 6. She iras not timid and always lit on the side of the 

 branch nearest the tent, as though to shield her little ones. 



In order to see the little Chickadees, we made the opening 

 to the nest a little larger. We found that they were pretty 

 large "little Chickadees" for the only difference in appear- 

 ance they showed from their parents was in abbreviated tail 

 feathers. There were six of them, five of which were very 

 capable of short flights ; in fact one slipped through my 

 fingers and got away before I had a chance to see how large 

 they were. 



Wlien we decided to arrange the five little fellows, thai; 

 still remained, on a stick so that we might picture their par- 



