CHICKADEE (Penthestes atricapillus) 



Length, about Sl-i inches. 



Range: Resident in the United States (ex- 

 cept tlie southern half east of the plains), 

 Canada, and Alaska. 



ilabits and economic status: Because of its 

 delightful notes, its confiding ways, and its 

 fearlessness, the chickadee is one of our best- 

 known birds. It responds to encouragement, 

 and by hanging within its reach a constant 

 supply of suet the chickadee can be made a 

 regular visitor to the garden and orchard. 

 Though insignificant in size, titmice are far 

 from being so from the economic standpoint, 

 owing to their numbers and activity. While 

 one locality is being scrutinized for food by 

 a larger bird, lo are being searched by the 

 smaller species. The chickadee's food is made 

 up of insects and vegetable matter in the pro- 

 portion of 7 of the former to 3 of the latter. 

 Moths and caterpillars are favorites and form 

 about one-third of the whole. Beetles, ants, 

 wasps, bugs, flies, grasshoppers, and spiders 

 make up the rest. The vegetable food is com- 

 posed of seeds, largely those of pines, with a 

 few of the poison ivy and some weeds. There 

 are few more useful birds than the chickadees. 



WHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCH 

 (Sitta carolinensis) 



Length, 6 inches. White below, above gray, 

 with a black head. 



Range : Resident in the United States, south- 

 ern Canada, and Mexico. 



Habits and economic status : This bird might 

 readily be mistaken by a careless observer for 

 a small woodpecker, but its note, an oft-re- 

 peated yank, is very unwoodpecker-like, and, 

 unlike either woodpeckers or creepers, it climbs 

 downward as easily as upward and seems to 

 set the laws of gravity at defiance. The name 

 was suggested by the habit of wedging nuts, 

 especially beechnuts, in the crevices of bark so 

 as to break them open by blows from the sharp, 

 strong bill. The nuthatch gets its living from 

 the trunks and branches of trees, over which 

 it creeps from daylight to dark. Insects and 

 spiders constitute a little more than 50 per cent 

 of its food. The largest items of these are 

 beetles, moths, and caterpillars, with ants and 

 wasps. The animal food is all in the bird's 

 favor except a few ladybird beetles. More 

 than half of the vegetable food consists of 

 mast — that is, acorns and other nuts or large 

 seeds. One-tenth of the food is grain, mostly 

 waste corn. The nuthatch does no injury, so 

 far as known, and much good. 



BROWN CREEPER (Certhia familiaris 

 americana and other subspecies) 



Length, 5^ inches. 



Range : Breeds from Nebraska, Indiana, 

 North Carolina (mountains), and Massachu- 

 setts north to southern Canada, also in the 

 mountains of the western United States, north 

 to Alaska, south to Nicaragua ; winters over 

 most of its range. 



Habits and economic status : Rarely indeed 

 is the creeper seen at rest. It appears to spend 

 its life in an incessant scramble over the trunks 

 and branches of trees, from which it gets all 

 its food. It is protectively colored so as to be 

 practically invisible to its enemies and, though 

 delicately built, possesses amazingly strong 

 claws and feet. Its tiny eyes are sharp enough 

 to detect insects so small that most other spe- 

 cies pass them by, and altogether the creeper 

 fills a unique place in the ranks of our insect 

 destroyers. The food consists of minute in- 

 sects and insects' eggs, also cocoons of tineid 

 moths, small wasps, ants, and bugs, especially 

 scales and plant lice, with some small cater- 

 pillars. As the creeper remains in the United 

 States throughout the year, it naturally secures 

 hibernating insects and insects' eggs, as well as 

 spiders and spiders' eggs, that are missed by 

 the summer birds. On its bill of fare we find 

 no product of husbandry nor any useful insects. 



HOUSE WREN (Troglodytes aedon) 



Length, 4^ inches. The only one of our 

 wrens with wholly whitish underparts that 

 lacks a light line over the eye. 



Range : Breeds throughout the United States 

 (except the South Atlantic and Gulf States) 

 and southern Canada; winters in the southern 

 United States and Mexico. 



Habits and economic status : The rich, bub- 

 bling song of the familiar little house wren is 

 one of the sweetest associations connected 

 with country and suburban life. Its tiny body, 

 long bill, sharp eyes, and strong feet peculiarly 

 adapt it for creeping into all sorts of nooks 

 and crannies where lurk the insects it feeds on. 

 A cavity in a fence post, a hole in a tree, or a 

 box will be welcomed alike by this busybody 

 as a nesting site; but since the advent of the 

 quarrelsome English sparrows such domiciles 

 are at a premium and the wren's eggs and 

 family are safe only in cavities having en- 

 trances too small to admit the sparrow. Hence 

 it behooves the farmer's boy to provide boxes 

 the entrances to which are about an inch in 

 diameter, nailing these under gables of barns 

 and outhouses or in orchard trees. In this way 

 the numbers of this useful bird can be in- 

 creased, greatly to the advantage of the farmer. 

 Grasshoppers, beetles, caterpillars, bugs, and 

 spiders are the principal elements of its food. 

 Cutworms, weevils, ticks, and plant lice are 

 among the injurious forms eaten. The nest- 

 lings of house wrens consume great quantities 

 of insects. 



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