A BI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE 

 DEVOTED TO THE STUDY AND PROTECTION OF BIRDS 



Organ of the 



Vol. XII November— December, 1910 No. 6 



A Chickadee Home 



By CRAIG S. THOMS. Vermillion. S. D. 

 With photographs by the author 



FOR several years I had been trying to induce a pair of Chickadees to 

 build their nest in my yard, where I could watch them in their home 

 Hfe. They boarded with me in the bleak winters, but, notwithstand- 

 ing all my alluring boxes, and hollow- wood chunks, the "call of the wild" 

 swept them away to orchard or grove at the first peep of spring. 



But the spring of 1909 brought me good fortune. A cherry tree that stood 

 about fifty feet from my study window grew from the ground double, that 

 is, by two trunks, one of which had for several years been dying. I did not 

 like to lose the tree, but I would give half a tree any time for a Chickadee's 

 nest. But to make sure that the Chickadees would build in it was the problem. 



Proceeding on the principle that birds, as well as men, covet the largest 

 results with the least amount of work, and knowing full well that saw, hammer, 

 and chisel were more efi"ective tools, at least for the rough part of the work, 

 than tiny Chickadee bills, I sawed across the dead tree about three feet from 

 the ground, cutting in about three inches ; about a foot above the first cut 

 I made a second; then, after carefully cutting the bark down the sides with 

 my knife, so that it would not tear, I spht off the whole front side of the Chick- 

 adee's house — that is, what I hoped would be a Chickadee's house. This 

 done, with hammer and chisel I made the chips fly until I had excavated 

 a gourd-shaped hole, very like a Chickadee's nest that I had seen years 

 before. 



As I worked, the pair of Chickadees that I had been feeding all winter 

 cheered me on from nearby trees, seeming to wonder how I could produce 

 such large chips. 



When the hole was completed, I hollowed the part I had split off so as to 

 make the excavation as symmetrical as possible. Then, with an auger I 

 bored a hole at the top of the split-off piece, and fastened the piece back in 

 its place with a large screw at each corner. 



On the principle that even birds do not appreciate what they do not have 



