28o THE MOUNTAIN CHICKADEE. 



IT IS either accident nv tlie iiiethutlical hal)it of scrutinizing every 

 passing bird which first reveals to you the Mountain Chickadee. He is quite 

 simihu" in general appearance and conduct to the foregoing species, altho the 

 white superciliarv line does confer a little air of distinction when you look 

 closely. His n(jtes, so far as observed, are not different ; and he exhibits 

 the cheerful confiding nature which makes the name oi Chickadee beloved. 



GainbcU is a bird of the fo(.ithills as well as of the mountains, and is 

 confined almost exclusively to the East-side. I ha\-e not seen it on Puget 

 Sound : but a dead bird was once brought by one of the school children to 

 Miss A. L. Pollock, of Seattle. 



Both of the nests which have come under my observation have been 

 placed in decayed stumps not abo\'e three feet from the ground. One, in 

 a wild cherry stub in northern Ok'anogan County, contained fresh eggs on 

 the i8th day of May. Their color had been ]iure white, but they were luuch 

 soiled thru contact M'ith the miscellaneous stufi which made up the lining 

 of the cavitv : moss, cow-hair, ra1>ljits" wool, wild ducks" down, hawks' casts, 

 etc. The birds were not especially solicitous, altho once the female flew 

 almost in my face as I was preparing the eggs for the cabinet. AikI then 

 she sat quietly for several minutes on a twig not abo\e a foot from my eyes. 



On Senator Turner's grounds in Spokane — by permission — we came 

 upon a nestful of well-grown young, on the 5th of June, 1906. The nest was 

 two feet up in a stump, concealed by a cluiu]) of second-growth maples, pic- 

 turesquely nestled at the base of a volcanic knob. Upon first discovery the 

 parent birds both appeared with bills full of larvae, and scolded daintily. 

 Finalh-, after several feints, one entered the nesting hole and fed, with our 

 eyes not two feet remo\-ed. Photography was impossible because of the 

 subdued light, but it was an unfailing source of interest to see the busy 

 ])arents hurrying to and fro and bringing incredible quantities of provisions 

 in the shape of moths' eggs, spiders, wood-boring grubs, and winged creatures 

 of a hundred sorts. Evidently the gardener knew what he was about in 

 sheltering these unpaid assistants. Why, when it comes to horticulture, 

 three pairs of Chickadees are equal to one Scotchman any day. 



The young were fully fledged, and tlie irrepressible of the flock (there 

 is always an irrepressible) spent a good deal of time at the entrance shifting 

 upon his toes, and wishing he dared venture out. The old l^rds fed incess- 

 antlv, usually alighting upon the bark at one side of the hole and debating 

 for a moment before plunging into the wooden cavern, whence issued a 

 chorus of childish entreaties. 



The next morning our Chickadees had all flown, and upon l)reaking into 

 tlie abandoned home we found a nest chamber some six inches in diameter, 

 with its original warm lining mingled with fallen punk and trodden into an 

 indistinguishable mass by the restless feet of the chick Chickadees. A special 



