FAMILY Paride. 
not differ in coloring. Nest generally in a hole (often 
excavated by the birds themselves) in a post, stump, 
or tree-trunk, perhaps ten to fifteen feet from the 
ground; it is built of moss, grass, feathers, plant-down, 
or similar soft material. Egg white spotted with ruddy 
brown. The bird is common from Illinois and Pennsyl- 
vania northward. It breeds throughout this range and 
along the higher Alleghanies as far south as South 
Carolina. 
The entertaining little Black-capped Chickadee is a 
favorite among all bird-lovers, and with good reason. 
Few of our wild birds are so sociable, fearless, and re- 
sponsive. Whistle to the little fellow and he invariably 
replies; one might whistle all day to the Oriole without 
eliciting the slightest response. Call the Chickadee in 
winter, show him that you have something good to eat, 
and eventually with patience and cautious quietude on 
your part he will feed from your hand; that is more 
than can be done with the Oriole. This is the bird, too, 
who braves the winter’s cold, and makes himself at home 
in the dooryards of New England farm-houses, the one 
of whom Emerson wrote,— 
‘* This scrap of valor just for play 
Fronts the north wind in waistcoat gray, 
As if to shame my weak behavior.” 
He gets his name, of course, from his rather squeaky 
and harsh call-notes; every child knows them, chick-a- 
dee-dee-dee-dee which, however unmusical, could be 
placed upon the treble staff thus: 
3 times 8¥4- 
Chich-a-de-de-de-de 
There is no certainty about pitch in such mixed tones as 
these, but there 7s an absolute mechanical rhythm which 
is readily transcribed upon the music bars. For in- 
stance; one must know without a knowledge of music 
228 
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