CHICKADEE 69 



Chickadee who came to us for food used to get so 



preoccupied eating that he would let me walk 



close under him on snowshoes. 



But though the birds are glad of the dainties 



we may offer them, they are quite capable of 



finding food for themselves, even in the bleakest 



winter weather, for they live on grubs, and on 



the eoo's of moths hidden under the bark of trees. 



They are particularly fond of tlie eggs of the 



cankerworm moth (Fig. 30). Mr. Forbush of 



the Massachusetts State Board of Agriculture 



calculated that one 



Chickadee in one 



day would destroy 



5,550 eggs, and 



in the twenty-five ^ V \ ( 



days in which the 



\ Fig. 30. 



cankerworm moths 



Cankerworm moth, much eaten by 

 run or crawl up Chickadee. 



the trees, 138,750 



eggs. He was so impressed with the value of 

 the birds' services that he attracted them to an 

 infested orchard by feeding them there during 

 the winter ; and the following summer " it was 

 noticed that while trees in neighboring orchards 

 were seriously infested with cankerworms and to 

 a less degree with tent-caterpillars (Fig. 84, p. 

 162), those in the orchard which had been fre- 

 quented by the Chickadees during the winter and 

 spring were not seriously infested, and that com- 



