V CHICKADEE. 



PARTIS ATKICAPILLXTS. 



IT was a fortunate meeting of extremes when Emerson 

 found the titmouse in the winter forest, for he went 

 home and put his little friend on paper so surely that he 

 can never fly away : — 



" Here was this atom in full breath, 

 Hurling defiance at vast death ; 

 This scrap of valor just for play 

 Fronts the north wind in waistcoat gray, 

 As if to shame my weak behavior." 



The chickadees make very free with us in frosty weather ; 

 coming about our homes, they help themselves without 

 question. If driven from the bit of meat hung up to 

 "keep" in the cold, they utter a few " chick-a-dee-dee- 

 dees," and fall to again as if nothing had happened. The 

 " chickadee " notes, however, are their chat, not their song, 

 though sometimes the song immediately follows. 



One clear, cold March morning before sunrise, I was 

 greeted with two tones, 



i 



^^ 



Ear - ly. 



They thrilled me; never were purer tones heard on 

 earth. Presently they were repeated, when I discovered 



