THE CHICKADEE. 5^ 



pure, dull-white ground, and the entire Q'g'g is very uniformly 

 and pretty thickly covered with fine markings and small blotches 

 of red and reddish-brown intermingled with a few dots of pur- 

 plish " (Dr. Brewer). Specimens of this species just ready to 

 lay their eggs were shot the first week in June at Lake Win- 

 nipeg. 



Variety carolinexsis (No. 3I(5), the little Southern 

 Chickadee, replaces the common northern form in the Atlantic 

 and Gulf states, south of a line from Washington to St. Louis, 

 breeding from one end of this extent to the other. It begins 

 in Florida as early as February ; eggs are deposited in Georgia 

 during the last half of April, and in West Virginia early in 

 May. When the wood is sufficiently soft, as wild plum, sassa- 

 fras and the like, the bird digs out its own nesting-place ; but 

 more frequently it takes possession of a suitable deep natural 

 cranny, or an old woodpecker's or nuthatch's hole. This may 

 be in a stump close to the ground, or in a high dead limb, but 

 is usually in wet woods. At Carson City, Nevada, Ridgway 

 found that in the absence of trees these chickadees nest about 

 the houses, in eaves and over porches.' 



The nest in the cavity is a firmly compacted cup of a felt of 

 cow-hair, hare's fur, various shreds of cotton, wool and pieces 

 of plants ; it is about two inches deep by two in diameter. 

 Six or eight eggs are laid. These are claimed to be slightly 

 larger than those of atricapilliis, although the bird itself is 

 smaller. Like the latter's, these eggs are of a pure crystalline 

 whiteness, profusely spotted with reddish-brown. 



I " am" thus particular in regard to this southern "variety" 

 of the chickadee, because many ornithologists consider it a dif- 

 ferent and tenable " species." So far as the eggs are con- 

 cerned, all supposed distinctions between them and those of the 

 type vanish when a large series of each is compared. 



Variety occidentalis (No. 31c), the Western Chickadee, 

 hails from Oregon and northward, frequenting the wooded 

 banks of streams. Dr. Cooper observed its nests near Puget 

 sound, hollowed out of rotten tree-trunks. The eggs are as yet 

 unseen. 



