166 USEFUL BIRDS. 



Much of the daylight life of the Chickadee is spent in a 

 busy, active pursuit of or search for insects and their eggs. 

 This is particularly the case in winter, when hil^ernating 

 insects or their eggs must be most diligently sought, for 

 then starvation always threatens. But the Chickadee is one 

 of the few insectivorous birds that is keen-witted 

 enough to find abundant food and safe shelter dur- 

 ing the inclement northern winter. Nevertheless, 

 its busy search for food is sometimes interrupted 

 for so long a time during severe storms, when the 

 trees are encased in ice, that it dies from cold and hunger. 

 During a sleet storm Mr. C. E. Bailey saw two Chickadees 

 creep under the loose clapboards of an old building for 

 shelter. Their tails were so weighted down with ice that 

 they could hardly tiy, and had he not cared for them they 

 might have perished. 



The Chickadee, notwithstanding its hardiness, requires 

 protection from cold winds and storms at night. It finds 

 such shelter either in some hollow tree or in some deserted 

 bird nest. Late one cold and snowy afternoon Mr. Bailey 

 detected a movement in a cavity under an old Crow's nest, 

 and on climbing the tree he found two Chickadees nestling 

 there. They remained there until he had climbed to the 

 nest and put his hand on one, when they flew out, only to 

 return before he had reached the ground. Minot speaks 

 of a Chickadee that slept alone in winter in a 

 Phcebe's nest under his veranda. It retires to its 

 refuge rather early at night, and does not come 

 out until the Tree Sparrow, Song Sparrow, and 

 Junco are abroad. 



Althouoh the digestive organs of the Chickadee are not 

 those of a typical seed eater, it can digest and assimilate 

 seeds at need, and often lives to a considerable extent on 

 the seeds of the l)irch. Oats are sometimes eaten in winter, 

 but they are taken from waste grain found along the roads. 

 The fruit of the common sumacs, bayberry, and poison 

 sumac are also eaten ; pieces of lichens and bud scales some- 

 times form a portion of the stomach contents ; but the food 

 of this bird is preferably of an animal nature. In winter 



