44 BIRDS THROUGH AN OPERA-GLASS. 
tent to sit perched up on top of an open nest, but 
builds in the side of a stump or a dead stub, and 
retires from the world with the determination of 
a nun. 
You will wonder at first how such a tiny bill as 
the chickadee’s can be used as a pickaxe, but if 
you notice it carefully you will see that, without 
being clumsy, it is very stout, for it 1s arched 
enough to give it strength. Of course the chick- 
adee sometimes nests in natural cavities in trees ; 
and Audubon says old woodpeckers’ holes are oc- 
casionally used; but most writers agree in think- 
ing that it usually makes its own excavation, 
occasionally in comparatively hard wood. 
One morning I was hurrying noisily through 
the underbrush of a clearing to get home in time 
for breakfast, when, suddenly, I came face to face 
with a pair of chickadees. Even then they did 
not stir, but sat eying me calmly for several sec- 
onds. I suspected a nest, and when they had 
flown off, I discovered the opening in a decayed 
stub close by my side. The stub was a small one, 
being perhaps eight or ten inches in diameter and 
four and a half feet high. The entrance was 
about a foot from the top, and the nest itself a 
foot or more below this. What a tasteful little 
structure it was! Although out of sight, it was 
far prettier than most bird-houses on exhibition 
in the forest. Bits of fresh green moss gave it a 
dainty air, and brought out the dark gray of the 
ee 
