THE CHICKADEE 9 
pronounces his own name. He will be pretty 
certain to do it, sooner or later, especially if you 
excite him a little by squeaking or chirping to 
him. : 
Although the chickadee is small and delicate- 
looking, he seems not to mind the very coldest 
of weather. Give him enough to eat, and the 
wind may whistle. He picks his food, tiny in- 
sects, insects’ eggs, and the like, out of crevices 
in the bark of trees and about the ends of twigs, 
and so is seldom or never without resources. The 
deepest snows do not cover up his dinner-table. 
His worst days, no doubt, are those in which 
everything is covered with sleet. 
One of his prettiest traits is his skill in hang- 
ing back downward from the tip of a swinging 
branch or from the under side of a leaf while in 
search of provender. As a small boy, who had 
probably been to the circus, once said, the chick- 
adee is a “first-rate performer on the flying 
trapeze.” 
