276 | THE OREGON CHICKADEE. 
Chickadee refuses to look down for long upon the world; or, indeed, to 
look at any one thing from any one direction for more than two consecutive 
twelfths of a second. “Any old side up without care,” is the label he bears; 
and so with anything he meets, be it a pine-cone, an alder catkin, or a bug- 
bearing branchlet, top- 
side, bottomside, inside, 
outside, all is right side 
to the nimble Chicka- 
dee. Faith! their little 
brains must have spe- 
cial guy-ropes and 
stays, else they would 
have been spilled long 
ago, the way their own- 
ers frisk about. Blind- 
man’s buff, hide-and- 
seek, and tag are merry 
games enough when 
played out on one 
plane, but when staged 
in three dimensions, 
with a labyrinth of in- 
terlacing branches for 
hazard, only the blithe 
bird whose praises we 
sing could possibly 
master their intricacies. 
But Chickadee is as 
confiding and as con- 
fidence-inviting as he is 
capable. It is precisely 
because you babble all 
your secrets to him at 
the first breath that the 
whole wood-side comes 
to him for news. With 
the fatuity of utter 
trust he will interrogate 
the fiercest-looking stranger; and the sound of the “szvectce” call is the signal 
for all birds to be alert. At the repetition of it the leaves begin to rustle, the 
moss to sigh, and the log-heaps to give up their hidden store of sleepy Wrens, 
bashful Sparrows, and frowning Towhees. Juncoes simper and Kinglets 
Taken 
near Tacoma 
Photo by 
the Author. 
NEST AND EGGS OF OREGON CHICKADEE. 
THE FRONT WALL OF THE CONTAINING STUMP HAS BEEN REMOVED. 
