THE BIRDS OF XEW JERSEY. 41 



wings, lead-colored with white margin; legs, light blue. 



The birds nest in an old stump or hole in a tree, fifteen 

 feet or less from the ground; the nest is made of moss, 

 grass, feathers, hair, fur and plant down. The eggs are 

 from five to eight in number, three-fifths by one-half 

 inch in size, white with brown spots principally near the 

 larger end. There are two broods in one year. 



The birds are regular winter visitants in New Jersey, 

 and breed in the northern counties. 



Their song in the summer is Chick-a-dee-clee-dee, in win- 

 ter Ch ick-a- day -day -day. 



Their food consists principally of insects with very 

 little fruit. In an article on ' ' Birds as Protectors of Or- 

 chards," Mr. E. H. Forbush, of the Massachusetts Board 

 of Agriculture, says of the Chickadees: "There is no bird 

 that can compare with it in destroying the female canker- 

 worm moths and their eggs." He calculated that one 

 Chickadee in one day would destroy 5,550 eggs, and in the 

 twenty-five days in which the canker-worm moths run 

 or crawl up the trees 138,750 eggs. Mr. Forbush attract- 

 ed Chickadees to one orchard by feeding them in winter, 

 and he says that in the following summer "it was noticed 

 that while trees in neighboring orchards w^ere seriously in- 

 fested with canker-worms and to a less degree with tent- 

 caterpillars, those in the orchards which had been fre- 

 quented by the Chickadees during the winter and spring 

 were not seriously infested and that comparatively few 

 of the worms and caterpillars were to be found there." 

 His conclusion is that birds that eat eggs of insects are 

 of the greatest value to the farmer, as they feed almost 

 entirely on injurious insects and their eggs, and are pre- 

 sent all winter, when other birds are absent. In south- 

 ern New Jersey this species is replaced by the following, 

 except in winter, when both occur. 



Chickadee^ f'nrolitta. — Length, four inches; extent, 

 six inches ; bill, one- third of an inch. This bird is scarce- 



