WINTER COMRADES 143 



proclaims their identity that one never mistakes 

 them. It often seems to me they cheer and 

 encourage one another at their dreary work with 

 their glad notes; and cheering they need, for 

 their lot, constant labor in the chill atmosphere, 

 is anything but an easy one. This same char- 

 acteristic, however, one notes in all the tiny 

 midgets that brave the region of our Northern 

 winter. No wonder that Emerson said of him: 



"This scrap of valor just for play 

 Fronts the north wind in waistcoat gray, 

 As if to show my weak behavior." 



Besides the usual notes which have deter- 

 mined the bird's name, it has a variety of trills 

 and calls, all of which are pleasant sounds, some 

 of them very pleasing. One is a sweet, plaintive 

 little strain which I more often hear in the 

 spring when the mating season approaches: 

 *'' s-w-e-e-t hearty swe-e-t heart^' of which Mr. 

 Cheney says: *' Never were purer tones heard 

 on earth." 



The dress of the Chickadee, like that of most 

 northern dwellers, is rather fluffy, and although 

 not brilliant in color it is really attractive. The 

 most striking feature is the glossy black cap. 

 The back is slaty gray, the tail darker. The 

 chin is black, the throat and under parts whitish, 

 the upper neck and cheeks snow white. It is 

 slightly more than five inches long. 



Chickadees nest in a hole either dug by them- 

 selves or cut by a Downy, often only a few feet 

 above the ground. In such a chamber is built a 

 nest of bits of birch bark, wood fibre and plant 



