THE CHICKADEES 



Chocorua. I told him that my chickadees 

 could count four. Mr. Bolles laughed, and 

 said : " I am quite a bird crank, but I think 

 I will have to draw the line at counting. 

 What have you for proof?" I called his 

 attention to the method employed by the 

 chickadees when eating hemp-seed. Not hav- 

 ing the stout cone bill of the finch family, a 

 chickadee was obliged to hold a seed between 

 its toes and beat off the hull, to get at the 

 meat. A chickadee would fly into the -door- 

 yard after a hemp-seed, then fly to a small 

 twig, and, holding the seed between its toes, 

 hammer away until the meat was threshed out. 

 Some of the old birds would carry away as 

 many as four seeds. These birds let their 

 brains save their wings. When a bird carried 

 away four seeds, three were usually placed 

 in the rough bark of a limb until wanted. 

 I fed the chickadees, and a dozen or more 

 were soon busy taking seed from the door- 

 yard. A pet bird, of long standing, was 

 pointed out to Mr. Bolles as one that could 

 count four. The bird picked up four seeds, 

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