THE CHICKADEE OR BLACK-CAPPED TITMOUSE 



fall cankerworm motli, and 450 eggs of a plant louse in 

 another. Mr. C. E. Bailey computed that one chickadee 

 alone would destroy 138,750 eggs of the cankerworm 

 moth in 25 days, while Prof. Sanderson estimated that 

 8,000,000,000 insects are destroyed yearly in Michigan 

 by these invaluable little birds/ 



"Much of the daylight life of the chickadee is spent in a 

 busy, active pursuit of, or search for, insects and their 

 eggs. This is particularly the case in winter, when hiber- 

 nating insects or their eggs must be most diligently sought, 

 for then starvation always threatens. But the chickadee 

 is one of the few insectivorous birds that is keen-witted 

 enough to find abundant food and safe shelter during the 

 inclement northern winter. Nevertheless, its busy search 

 for food is sometimes interrupted for so long a time during 

 severe storms, when the trees are encased in ice, that it dies 

 from cold and hunger. During a sleet storm Mr. C. E. 

 Bailey saw two chickadees creep under the loose clapboards 

 of an old building for shelter. Their tails were so 

 weighted down with ice that they could hardly fly, and had 

 he not cared for them they might have perished. 



"The chickadee, notwithstanding its hardiness, requires 

 protection from cold winds and storms at night. It finds 

 such shelter either in some hollow tree or in some deserted 

 bird nest. Late one cold and snowy afternoon Mr. Bailey 

 detected a movement in a cavity under an old crow's nest, 

 and on climbing the tree he found two chickadees nestling 

 there. They remained there until he had climbed to the 

 nest and put his hand on one, when they flew out, only to 

 return before he reached the ground. Minot speaks of a 



1 Educational Leaflet No. 61, National Association of Audubon Societies, 



[55] 



