(JLROLINA QliCKADEE 349 



Skinner (1928) says that, in winter, "they are easily attracted to 

 dooryards and about our homes by hanging up bones with bits of meat 

 and gristle attached, to a tree or bush. They will also eat cheese and 

 suet, and pick up bread and doughnut cjumbs." 



Voice. — There is probably no native bird song more pleasing than the 

 music of this chickadee. It has not the loud, ringing quality of the 

 tufted tit's song, which comes to us from the blossoming dogwoods, 

 half a mile away. Its voice is rather weak and the song a very simple 

 one, but the notes are exquisitely mellow, soft, and satisfying. 



Wayne (1910) writes: "The song period begins about the middle of 

 February and the sweet notes are always welcomed as the herald of 

 spring." Dickey (MS.) thus describes the notes: "Usually it is de- 

 tected as it scolds cats, scjeech owls, or a human intruder, whereupon 

 it will vent syllables like dee-dee-dee-dee; chick-ah-dee-dee-dee-dee ; 

 sprittle-chick-ah-dee-dee-dee-dee; dee-dee-dee-pee-stick-dee ; pee-tee-dee- 

 dee-spee-teetle; spick-spick-ut-uh-dee, and phe-hee." Sometimes there is 

 a marked liquid flow of notes prior to the chickadee series as sputtle-dee, 

 but this is hard to put down on paper. Perhaps it is well simply to say 

 that their run of outcries are buzzing exclamations. 



"The song has been described by some writers as 'the pumphandle 

 strain,' and that will suggest its nature very well. Indeed this does 

 remind one of the not unpleasant, old-fashioned sounds made by a wind- 

 lass well. Spee-deedle-dee-deedle-dee is what the chickadee seems to 

 say. I have heard it repeatedly on fair days in midwinter; it increases 

 in frequency as March is ushered in ; is pronounced everywhere in spring 

 and early in summer (the breeding period) ; and casually a subdued, 

 shortened song is vented on crisp autumn days, too." 



Aretas A. Saunders (MS.) has this to say about the song of caro- 

 linensis: "In my experience, the best way to identify a Carolina chicka- 

 dee in the field is by its song. The song is enough different from the 

 black-capped chickadee to name the bird instantly. The other call notes 

 are not so easily distinguished. 



"The song consists of two clear whistled notes, but each one is either 

 introduced or followed by a shorter, lower-pitched, sibilant note. That 

 is, instead of the bird singing a simple fee-bee, it sings sufee-subee or 

 else feesu beesu. These sibilant notes are like whispers rather than 

 whistles, and I have known observers not to notice them and to think 

 there was no essential difference in the song of this chickadee and the 

 blackcap. The pitch and pitch interval of the clear, whistled notes are 

 about the same as in the black-capped chickadee, one tone between them, 

 and the notes pitched on B-A or A-G, in the highest octave of the piano. 

 The sibilant notes are on a different pitch than the whistled ones, some- 



