The Chickadee 375 



my head and peer with beadUke eyes into my face, and in numberless instances 

 he has jilaced absolute confidence in those who have fed him in winter. 



Chickadee is a very attentive little husband, often visits his mate while 

 she is sitting on her eggs, and, besides relieving her of a part of this labor, 

 frequently feeds her on the nest. 



Probably there is no bird that is more beneficial to mankind than is this 

 little Titmouse. He lives very largely on insects which are destructive to trees. 

 Even in winter, much more than half his real food consists of 

 Food insects or their eggs. Myriads of the eggs of plant-lice, bugs, 



canker-worms, moths and bark-lice are eaten. No insect 

 appears to l)e too large for him, and none apparently too small to escape his 

 sharp eyes and his little pointed bill. If a caterpillar is too big for him to 

 swallow, he holds it under foot and pecks out its vitals, discarding the rest. 

 If the larva is too large and powerful to be held in this way, the bird draws it 

 over a twig and, seizing both ends in his feet, swings back downward under- 

 neath the twig, pecking away until he has reduced the struggling captive to 

 submission. 



Many larvae, including those of the apple moth and the gypsy moth, 

 destructive bark-beetles, some weevils and scale insects, are killed in myriads 

 by the Chickadee. Mr. C. E. Bailey found 1,028 eggs of the fall canker-worm 

 moth in the stomachs of four Chickadees, and 105 canker-worm moths in the 

 stomachs and gullets of four others. He computed that one Chickadee would 

 destroy 138,750 eggs of the canker-worm moth in 25 days. Professor 

 Sanderson estimates that 8,000,000,000 insects are destroyed by Chickadees 

 each year in Michigan. My own experience, for ten years, has shown that 

 trees may be absolutely protected from leaf-eating insects by attracting Chick- 

 adees throughout the year. 



Our little Titmouse does not depend entirely on animal food, and there- 

 fore can exist when the trees are incased in ice and snow. He takes some 

 weed seeds, picks up a Httle waste grain, eats the seeds of pine, hemlock, 

 alder, and some other trees, and a few winter berries, particularly those of the 

 wax myrtle, or bayberry. Sunflower seeds, meat, suet and nuts are relished 

 when he can get them, but he is not known to have any harmful habits. 



The best lesson we may learn from the life of the Chickadee is that of 

 courage, cheerfulness, and industry. Among the Chickadees that came to 

 my window to feed one winter, one had been fatally injured in some way and 

 was slowly dying. Still, day by day, he made the accustomed rounds, busy 

 and cheerful, but growing less active, until one morning he appeared hardly 

 able to feed, but was brave and cheery to the last. He never came again. 



Emerson says of the Chickadees: 



"There is no sorrow in their song. 

 No winter in their year." 



