26 UPON THE WOOD ROAD 



came alone, talking to himself, and at inter- 

 vals essaying in a feeble, unsteady manner 

 the " pe-wee " note of his race. 



Again I have many times heard curious 

 soliloquies in whispered tones. They could 

 not be called songs, they were more like talk. 



On one occasion the head of the family 

 as I suppose flew down toward me, alighted 

 just before my face not two feet away, and 

 looked at me sharply. I spoke to him quietly 

 in attempted imitation of his language, but 

 my little effort at conversation was not a com- 

 plete success, for after a short, not too civil 

 answer, he flew away. 



The crowning delight of my chickadee- 

 study was the song to which I was treated 

 one day. A bird was singing when I arrived, 

 so that I stopped short of my seat and lis- 

 tened. The song was so low that it could not 

 be heard unless one were very near, and in a 

 tone so peculiar that I could not believe it 

 came from a chickadee until I saw him. It 

 consisted of the usual utterances differently 

 arranged. There seemed to be, first, a suc- 

 cession of " dee-dee's " followed by a solitary 

 " chick " a third lower, then the same re- 



