THE CHICKADEE 



THE chickadees we have always with us. They 

 are like the evergreens among trees and plants. 

 Winter has no terrors for them. They are pro- 

 perly wood-birds, but the groves and orchards 

 know them also. Did they come near my cabin 

 for better protection, or did they chance to find 

 a little cavity in a tree there that suited them? 

 Branch-builders and ground-builders are easily 

 accommodated, but the chickadee must find 

 a cavity, and a small one at that. The wood- 

 peckers make a cavity when a suitable trunk or 

 branch is found, but the chickadee, with its 

 small, sharp beak, rarely does so; it usually 

 smooths and deepens one already formed. This 

 a pair did a few yards from my cabin. The open- 

 ing was into the heart of a little sassafras, about 

 four feet from the ground. Day after day the 

 birds took turns in deepening and enlarging the 

 cavity : a soft, gentle hammering for a few mo- 

 ments in the heart of the little tree, and then the 

 appearance of the worker at the opening, with 

 the chips in his, or her, beak. They changed off 

 every little while, one working while the other 

 gathered food. Absolute equality of the sexes, 



