CHESTNUT-BACKED CHICKADEE 389 



the elderberry bushes, and such items are cherished by the tits. I noticed 

 that, after the birds had fairly bounced the 'bugs' out of such cover, 

 then they would arise and, craning their heads back and forth and 

 thrusting forward their bodies, cleanse the air of this kind of provender. 

 They lower themselves to boulders and rocks, and cleanse boats on dry 

 docks of hiding insects, nor will they hesitate to peck at 'barnacle 

 scales'." 



Behavior. — The chestnut-backed chickadees are almost exact counter- 

 parts of our familiar eastern chickadees in traits of character and 

 behavior — fearless, sociable, and full of friendly curiosity. Taylor and 

 Shaw (1927) describe their behavior very well, as follows: 



Establish yourself in an inconspicuous position in the general vicinity of a flock 

 and make a squeaking sound with the lips on the back of the hand. Presently a 

 tiny chestnut back will appear in the needle clumps not far away, calling excitedly 

 and seeking the author of the unusual call note. If you remain quiet and continue 

 the squeaking you may soon find that the trees about you are alive with chestnut- 

 backs, buzzing about and hurling imprecations at you as if you were a new kind 

 of owl. Incidentally in the group of excited birds you may catch sight of a 

 number of other species. 



Chestnut-backed chickadees are sociable bodies, indeed, even gregarious. Seen 

 characteristically in flocks of 4 or 6 to 20 of their own kind, they approve, if 

 they do not actively cultivate, loose association with several others, including west- 

 ern golden-crowned kinglets, red-breasted nuthatches, Shufeldt juncos, mountain 

 chickadees, and lutescent and Townsend warblers. Of tliese the kinglets are 

 most often found in their company. 



Dr. Dickey, in Alaska, found them associated in March with winter 

 wrens, brown creepers, red-breasted nuthatches, sooty song sparrows, 

 and Oregon juncos. "They are quick to react to noises in their haunts; 

 they come hurrying out of plant cover, a gleam in their beady eyes ; and 

 they dangle upon dried seed heads and flower clusters of several kinds 

 of shrubs or undergrowth of this wild region. They will swing up and 

 down on bending branches, vent squeaks and lov/ chirps, varied with 

 buzzing 'dizzes.' " 



Voice. — The chestnut-backed chickadee seems to have a great variety 

 of notes, perhaps of conversational value, most of which bear little re- 

 semblance to the chick-a-dce note of our blackcap, though Dawson 

 (1923) says that this becomes kissadee, and Taylor and Shaw (1927) 

 say that "when scolding us at short range they interjected numerous 

 fine tseek a dee dees into their conversation." 



Taylor and Shaw found some of the notes to be very similar to "cer- 

 tain calls of the western golden-crowned kinglet, so as to be distinguish- 

 able with difficulty. Several much-used expressions were caught and set 

 down in our field books as follows : Toot seet seet see ! repeated several 



667497—45—28 



