CHICKADEE 371 



throats making them look top-heavy, restlessly hopping 

 along the alders, with a sharp, clear, lisping note. 



Dec. 15, 1855. This morning it has begun to snow 

 apparently in earnest. The air is quite thick and the 

 view confined. It is quite still, yet some flakes come 

 down from one side and some from another, crossing 

 each other like woof and warp apparently, as they are 

 falling in different eddies and currents of air. In the 

 midst of it, I hear and see a few little chickadees prying 

 about the twigs of the locusts in the graveyard. They 

 have come into town with the snow. They now and then 

 break forth into a short, sweet strain, and then seem 

 suddenly to check themselves, as if they had done it be- 

 fore they thought. 



June 3, 1856. While running a line in the woods, 

 close to the water, on the southwest side of Loring's 

 Pond, I observed a chickadee sitting quietly within a 

 few feet. Suspecting a nest, I looked and found it in a 

 small hollow maple stump which was about five inches 

 in diameter and two feet high. I looked down about 

 a foot and could just discern the eggs. Breaking off a 

 little, I managed to get my hand in and took out some 

 eggs. There were seven, making by their number an 

 unusual figure as they lay in the nest, a sort of ^gg ro- 

 sette, a circle around with one (or more) in the middle. 

 In the meanwhile the bird sat silent, though rather rest- 

 less, within three feet. The nest was very thick and 

 warm, of average depth, and made of the bluish-slate 

 rabbit's (?) fur. The eggs were a perfect oval, five 

 eighths inch long, white with small reddish-brown or 

 rusty spots, especially about larger end, partly devel- 



