CHAPTER X 



MR. CHICKADEE 



It has been said that America comprises Rhode 

 Island and the other States of the Union. I 

 understand it to mean that little Rhody is not to 

 be bunched, but demands especial mention. Now 

 be this as it may, something of the kind certainly 

 applies to the Chickadee, to any one who really 

 knows him, it is the Chickadee always having espe- 

 cial mention, and the rest of the feathered crea- 

 tures that make up the bird kingdom. It was 

 said many years ago, that to know Madam 

 Recamier was equivalent to a polite education, 

 and it may be said with even greater truth that 

 to know one Chickadee is equivalent to a scien- 

 tific knowledge of all the stuffed birds in kingdom 

 come. 



As the only interest the majority of people 

 have in a bird is its value for food, I want to say 

 right here and now, that for that purpose, as a 

 neighbor woman, here in the South, said of her 

 husband: "He haint worth shooten." Down in 

 Dixie Land, where nearly every bird that flies 



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