CHICKADEES 607 



in a hollow fence rail or crevice of a building, but this may be 

 considered rather exceptional, as they prefer the woodlands. A 

 very favorite situation selected near Bangor is a rotten white 

 birch stub which is still covered by the tough white bark. A 

 neat round hole is made through the bark and the cavity 

 excavated in the wood to a depth of six to ten or twelve inches. 

 Both birds work at this task and from a week to ten days is 

 required to excavate the hole and three or four additional days 

 to gather together the mass of feathers, moss, hair and cocoons 

 which make up the nest proper. An egg is laid daily until 

 the set of five to ten, usually six or seven eggs is completed. 

 Both birds incubate and the eggs hatch in eleven days, occa- 

 sionally requiring twelve or thirteen days for the last eggs to 

 hatch. Incubation usually does not begin until all but the 

 last egg or so of the set have been laid. The young are fed 

 by both parents and leave the nest in thirteen to fourteen days. 

 I feel sure that only one brood is reared here. 



A typical nest found at Orono, May 18, 1898, contained 

 seven fresh eggs which measure 0.59 x 0.46, 0.60 x 0.47, 0.59 

 xO.47, 0.58x0.45, 0.60x0.47, 0.62x0.47, 0.58x0.47. 

 This nest was placed in a cavity eight and a half inches deep 

 near the top of a rotten white birch stub, six and two-thirds 

 feet from the ground. The diameter of the entrance was two 

 and a quarter inches. The nest proper measured two inches 

 in diameter by one inch deep inside, and was composed of bits 

 of moss, spiders' cocoons, skunk, rabbit and squirrel hair, and 

 a few feathers. The eggs are pure white, speckled with reddish 

 brown most thickly about the larger end, though there are 

 some specks about the smaller end. Other sets of eggs I have 

 seen were quite varied in appearance, some being evenly 

 speckled all over, others being wreathed about the larger end 

 with fair sized blotches. In general fresh eggs may be found 

 from the tenth to the last of May. 



In addition to helping in the work of incubation the male is 

 very attentive to the female, feeding her frequently while she 



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