BLACK-CAPPED CHICKADEE 323 



ingratitude, to write ever so briefly of the New England winter without 

 noting this [the chickadee], the most engaging and characteristic en- 

 Hvener of our winter woods ; who revels in snow and ice, and is never 

 lacking in abundant measures of faith and cheerfulness, enough not only 

 for himself, but for any chance wayfarer of our own kind." Elsewhere, 

 Torrey (1885) calls the chickadee "the bird of the merry heart." 



Spring. — The black-capped chickadee is migratory to some extent, 

 but, as in the case of some other permanent residents, it is often diffi- 

 cult, except at favorable observation points, to determine the time and 

 extent of its northward and southward movements. Taverner and 

 Swales (1908) state: "Our experience with the species at Detroit leads 

 us to believe that it is more migrational than is generally supposed. 

 They are common through the winter, but about the first of April the 

 great bulk of them depart, leaving but a few scattered summer residents 

 behind." 



J. Van Tyne (1928) gives a vivid description of a definite migration. 

 He says: 



On May 20, 1928, while collecting at the tip of Sand Point (seven miles 

 southwest of Caseville, Michigan), I witnessed a most interesting migration 

 flight of Chickadees (Penthestes atricapillns). Sand Point juts out nearly four 

 miles into Saginaw Bay from the southeast, and apparently forms an important 

 point of departure for many species of birds migrating northward across the bay. 

 The day was clear with but little wind. At 9 :30 in the morning I noticed a 

 compact flock of over fifty chickadees flitting rapidly through the brushy growth 

 toward the end of the point. Their strange appearance immediately attracted my 

 attention. They seemed very nervous and tense, with necks outstretched and 

 feathers closely compressed against the body. They made no attempt to feed, 

 but kept moving steadily toward the end of the point. Reaching the last tree, 

 a twelve-foot sapling, the first birds flitted upward to the topmost twigs and 

 there hesitated, lacking the courage to launch forth. But the rest of the flock, 

 following close behind, in a few moments began to crowd upon them. Fairly 

 pushed off the tree-top, the leaders finally launched forth, the rest following in rapid 

 succession. They started upward at an angle of fully forty-five degrees. After 

 climbing perhaps a hundred feet the leaders lost their courage, and, hesitating a 

 moment, they all dropped precipitately back to the shelter of the bushes. But 

 once there they immediately headed for the sapling again and repeated the 

 performance. Finally, after several false starts, they continued out over the 

 lake toward the Charity Islands in the distance. 



It was a new experience to me to see chickadees fly by day out across miles 

 of open water. 



Courtship. — The chickadee has apparently developed no ritual of 

 courtship other than the pursuit of the female by the male — a common 

 performance of many of the smaller birds. Chickadees are so common 

 and so continually under our observation at close range that if they 

 practiced any marked trait when pairing ofif, it would certainly have been 

 noticed and described. 



