334 BULLETIN 191, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Jan. 27, 1910. This afternoon (2 p.m.) I watched for five or ten minutes a 

 Shrike attempting to capture a Chickadee. My attention was attracted by the 

 Chickadee's notes, si-si-si-si, dee-dee-dee, and I found the bird hiding in an 

 isolated red cedar tree, while the Shrike was doing his best to find him. The 

 Chickadee made no attempt to leave the tree, but kept moving about, chiefly among 

 the inner branches. The Shrike followed his prey as best he could through the 

 network of fine twigs, but often lost sight of it, evidently, and, coming to an out- 

 side branch, sat quiet, listening. 



When hard pressed, the Chickadee flew out and circled about the tree before 

 diving in among the branches again. After these flights, sometimes he entered the 

 tree low down, and then mounted to the very top by a series of short, rapid hops ; 

 sometimes, after flying to the apex of the tree, he passed downward to the lowest 

 branches before flying again. Several times the Shrike hovered in the air, and 

 holding his body motionless and upright, peered into the tree. Finally, although 

 not frightened away, the Shrike gave up the chase. 



Chickadee's nests are so carefully hidden away, and the entrance is 

 generally so small, that cowbirds rarely find and enter them. There is, 

 however, an instance of parasitism of unquestionable authority. Fred 

 M. Packard (1936) reports: "On May 25, 1936 a Black-capped Chicka- 

 dee's nest, containing four Chickadee eggs and two Cowbird's eggs, was 

 found in a nesting box at the Austin Ornithological Research Station 

 at North Eastham, Massachusetts. * * * 



"The opening in this box was one and one-half inches in diameter, 

 much larger than the usual entrance to Chickadee nests, and ample to 

 permit the intrusion of Cowbirds." 



Dr. Herbert Friedmann (1929) lists another recorded instance from 

 Ravinia, 111. ; an egg was reported to be in a nest of the Carolina chicka- 

 dee ; but the locality would seem to indicate that it was the more northern 

 species. 



Harold S. Peters (1936) lists, as external parasites on this chickadee, 

 a louse (Ricinus sp.). the larva of a fly (Ornithoica confluenta), and a 

 mite (Analgopsis passerimis). 



Fall. — It is certain that in fall a good many chickadees either migrate 

 or at least wander about extensively. We meet them at this season in 

 localities where they never breed, often in thickly built up sections of 

 large cities. Speaking of the occurrence of chickadees on the Public 

 Garden in Boston, Mass., Horace W. Wright (1909) says: "In the 

 autumn Chickadees are much more in evidence [than in spring], as they 

 quite regularly appear in the Garden and continue their stay into No- 

 vember; and, as already intimated, on two occasions two birds remained 

 through the winter and were seen at intervals up to the end of March. 

 Sometimes small flocks have appeared in October which numbered four, 

 five, or six birds." In September, October, and November I have seen 

 them also in smaller open places in Boston, such as a vacant lot sur- 

 rounded by several square miles of city blocks. 



