LONG-TAILED CHICKADLB 341 



throughout the day. A vigorous pecking could be heard while either bird was at 

 work. The excavated material was carried in the bill a distance of ten yards or 

 more from the nest before being dropped. It was not dropped in the same place 

 each time, but was scattered over a wide area. Usually the birds alighted on 

 some branch before dropping the debris, but sometimes it was dropped while the 

 bird was flying. As soon as one bird left the hole the other entered immediately. 

 Sometimes the bird outside had to wait a short time. Between 12 m. and 1 p.m. 

 the average time each bird spent in the nest hole was thirty seconds and the 

 shortest time four seconds. 



Eggs. — The eggs of the long-tailed chickadee are indistinguishable 

 from those of the black-capped chickadee. The measurements of 50 eggs 

 in the United State National Museum average 15.7 by 12.2 millimeters; 

 tlie eggs showing the four extremes measure 17.5 by 12.7, 15.1 by 12.9, 

 14.2 by 11.9, and 15.2 by 11.2 millimeters. 



Young. — Mr. Swarth (1922) watched the young being fed at the nest 

 referred to above and remarks: "Both parents carried food to the nest 

 assiduously after foraging expeditions that lasted from two to five 

 minutes. In approacjiing the nest, the old birds came through the trees 

 and bushes until within about eight or ten feet of their destination; 

 then they dropped to the ground and hopped to the entrance [only 5 

 inches from the ground]. To the casual observer they disappeared at 

 a point some distance from the nest, and it was not until they had 

 been observed for some time that this subterfuge was detected. The 

 staple food that was being brought to the young was a small green 

 caterpillar infesting the poplars at that time; also a white grub, a green 

 katydid, and many small mosquito-like insects." 



The plumage changes, food, behavior, and voice of this chickadee 

 are all similar to those of the familiar chickadee of the East and need 

 not be mentioned here. But the following note from Claude T. Barnes 

 is of interest: 



"On January 4, 1924, at an altitude of 5,000 feet in the mountains near 

 Salt Lake City, while wading through the deep snow of City Creek 

 Canyon, I was attracted by the thin, oft-repeated tchip of half a dozen 

 chickadees that were busy in the upper branches of some birch trees 

 (B. fontinalis utahensis). I noticed one take a peck at one of the 

 numerous birch catkins, which, like Kaiser brown caterpillars, were 

 suspended from the branches, and then instantly thereafter work with 

 its bill against a limb, as if trying to get the kernel from a nut. In a 

 second it made another peck followed by another working with its bill 

 against a limb, and so on, hopping from twig to twig and constantly 

 uttering its companionable tchip. Rarely did it sing chick-a-dee-dee-dee, 

 though three or four times in an hour the familiar notes did come 

 from the flock." 



667487—40—23 



