CHARACTER IN FEATHERS. 59 



doctrine," but literall}^ No matter how bitter 

 the wind or how deep the snow, you will never 

 find the chickadee, as the saying is, under the 

 weather. It is this perennial good humor, I sup- 

 pose, which makes other birds so fond of his 

 companionship ; and their example might well 

 be heeded by persons who suffer from fits of de- 

 pression. Such unfortunates could hardly do 

 better than to court the society of the joyous tit. 

 His whistles and chirps, his graceful feats of 

 climbing and hanging, and withal his engaging 

 familiarity (for, of course, such good-nature as 

 his could not consist with suspiciousness) would 

 most likely send them home in a more Christian 

 mood. The time will come, we may hope, 

 when doctors will prescribe bird-gazing instead 

 of blue-pill. 



To illustrate the chickadee's trustfulness, I 

 may mention that a friend of mine captured one 

 in a butterfly-net, and, carrying him into the 

 house, let him loose in the sitting-room. The 

 little stranger was at home immediateh', and 

 seeing the window full of plants, proceeded to 

 go over them carefully, picking off the lice with 

 which such window-gardens are always more or 

 less infested. A little later he was taken into 

 my friend's lap, and soon he climbed up to his 

 shoulder ; where, after hopping about for a few 

 minutes on his coat-collar, he selected a com- 



