390 BULLETIN 191, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



times; this was sometimes varied to tsweet tsweet tsweet\ One note 

 is like whist, uttered once or repeated as many as three times. This 

 triple note sometimes sounds like tuAt tivit tvAt. The principal call note 

 lieard during one exceedingly foggy, rainy day early in September was 

 tseet tseetl or tseet tseei tsew, a very kingletlike utterance. This was 

 quite certainly a flock location call, for tlie birds continued it when we 

 were no longer in view." 



Both Bowles (1909) and Dawson (1923) refer to a song resembling 

 that of the chipping sparrow. The latter says of it: "When the emotion 

 of springtime is no longer controllable, the minikin swain mounts a fir 

 limb and raps out a series of notes as monotonous as those of a Chip- 

 ping Sparrow. The trial is shorter and the movem.ent less rapid, so that 

 the half dozen notes of a uniform character have more individual dis- 

 tinctness than, say, in the case of the Sparrov/: Chick chick chick chick 

 chick chick. Another performer may give each note a double character. 

 so that the whole may sound like the snipping of a barber's shears: 

 Chulip chuHp chulip chulip chidip." 



Field marks. — While traveling through the treetops in loose flocks, as 

 is its customary habit, this chickadee might easily be mistaken for one 

 of the other v.-estern chickadees. Bnt at lovv'er levels and at short range 

 its chestnut back and sides are quite conspicuous. Tn juvenal plumage 

 the young of this and the Hudsonian cliickadee look somewhat alike, but 

 the former is considerably darker. The chestnut-backed chickadee fre- 

 quents, as a rule, more heavily timbered and drier country than the 

 Oregon chickadee, but there are exceptions to this rule. Its voice is also 

 different from that of the others. 



Energies. — Tn addition to the ordinarv'' enemies of all small birds, 

 there is, according to J.Ir. Bov;les (1909), another unusual enemy, which 

 "is no other than the common black-and-yellow bumble bee. This insect 

 has a veritable mania for living in holes in trees, and a chickadee nest 

 appears to be the acme of its desires. It seems to like the nesting ma- 

 terial and prefers the nest before the eggs are laid, but will often drive 

 the bird away from an incomplete set, pulling up most of the nesting and 

 leaving the eggs underneath." 



Fall. — S. F. Rathbun (MS.) says: "In October there appears to be 

 a m.ovement to the lowlands of those individuals that have spent the 

 summer in the higher altitude.=5 ; and one who may happen to be in the 

 mountains at that period v-ill see. each dav all through the month, num- 

 bers of these active little birds trooping by. this continu.ing well into 

 November. It is common throughout the winter in the sections adjacent 

 to tidewater, and also breeds in such localities, for the species can be 

 found at all seasons in all parts of the region [around Seattle] , although 



