8 EVERYDAY BIRDS 
Perhaps no wild bird is more confiding. If a 
man is at work in the woods in cold weather, and 
at luncheon will take a little pains to feed the 
chickadees that are sure to be more or less about 
him, he will soon have them tame enough to pick 
up crumbs at his feet, and: even to take them 
from his hand. 
Better even than crumbs is a bit of mince pie, 
or a piece of suet. I have myself held out a 
piece of suet to a chickadee as I walked through 
the woods, and have had him fly down at once, 
perch on my finger like a tame canary, and fall 
to eating. But he was a bird that another man, 
a woodcutter of my acquaintance, had tamed in 
the manner above described. 
The chickadee’s nest is built in a hole, gener- 
ally in a decayed stump or branch. It is very 
pretty to watch the pair when they are digging 
out the hole. All the chips are carried away and 
dropped at a little distance from the tree, so that 
the sight of them litterimg the ground may not 
reveal the birds’ secret to an enemy. 
Male and female dress alike. The top of the 
head is black — for which reason they are called 
black-capped chickadees, or black-capped __ tit- 
mice — and the chin is of the same color, while 
the cheeks are clear white. If you are not sure 
that you know the bird, stay near him till he 
