WESTERN BIRDS CWckadee 



GENUS PENTHESTES : OREGON 

 CHICKADEE. 



Oregon Chickadee: Penthestes stricapallus occiden- 



talis. 



FAMILY— TITMICE. 



On the western coast extending from British Colum- 

 bia to Oregon is found a Chickadee which resembles the 

 eastern one in habits and friendly ways, but is smaller 

 and darker. 



Wm. L. Finley, author of "American Birds," has taken 

 some pictures of these birds which graphically illus- 

 trate their fearlessness of man. Some of them are tak- 

 ing food from the hand; another photograph shows a 

 bird feeding its young on a person's head, and another 

 is helping itself to a nut held between the lips. 



The call notes differ somewhat from those of the 

 eastern birds but there is no doubt but that it is Chick- 

 adee language. 



Another western species which resembles the preceding 

 is the Long-tailed (P. a. septentrionalis) which breeds 

 from Alaska south to northern New Mexico and eastern 

 Kansas, and from eastern Oregon east to western Min- 

 nesota and western Iowa, going south in winter to 

 central Texas. 



This bird differs from the Oregon in having a longer 

 tail and being lighter in coloration. There are, also, 

 several other western subspecies which occupy a limited 

 range, and differ in some slight way from the common 

 form, which will not be considered in this work. 



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