244 The Chickadee 



saw. He confides in man to a remarkable degree. He hangs about 

 the camp of the wood-chopper, looks for the "full dinner-pail," and 

 sometimes comes and feeds from the hand. Many times in the woods 

 his curiosity has led him to fly close about my head and peer with bead- 

 like eyes into my face, and in numberless instances he has placed absolute 

 confidence in those who have fed him in winter. 



Probably no bird is more beneficial to mankind than is this little 

 Titmouse. He lives very largely on insects destruc- 

 Preserver ^ ye to ^ rees . even m w j n ter, much more than half his 



food consists of insects or their eggs. Myriads of the 

 eggs of plant-lice, bugs, canker-worms, moths and bark-lice are eaten. 

 No insect appears to be too large for him, and none too small to escape 

 his sharp eyes and his little pointed bill. If a caterpillar is too big for 

 him to swallow, he holds it under foot and pecks out its vitals, discard- 

 ing the rest. If the larva is too large and powerful to be held in this 

 way, the bird draws it over a twig, and, seizing both ends in his feet, 

 swings back downward underneath the twig, pecking away until he has 

 reduced the struggling captive to submission. 



Many larvae, including those of the apple-moth and the gipsy-moth, 

 destructive bark-beetles, some weevils and scale-insects, are killed in 

 myriads by the Chickadee. C. E. Bailey computed that one Chickadee 

 would destroy 138,750 eggs of the canker-worm-moth in 25 days. Pro- 

 fessor Sanderson estimates that 8,000,000,000 insects are destroyed by 

 Chickadees each year in Michigan. . My own experi- 

 y"p te *: tor ence, for ten years, has shown that trees may be abso- 



lutely protected from leaf-eating insects by attract- 

 ing Chickadees through the year. 



Our little Titmouse does not depend entirely on animal food, and 

 therefore can exist when the trees are incased in ice and snow. He takes 

 some weed-seeds, picks up a little waste grain, eats the seeds of pine, 

 hemlock, alder, and some other trees, and a few winter berries, partic- 

 ularly those of the wax-myrtle, or bayberry. Sunflower-seeds, meat, 

 suet, and nuts are relished when he can get them, but he is not known 

 to have any harmful habits. 



Classification and Distribution 



The Chickadee belongs to the Order Passeres, Family Paridcc, and Genus 

 Penthestes; its scientific name is Penthestes atricapillus atricapillus. This, the 

 Black-capped Chickadee, is resident throughout the northeastern United States, 

 and southeastern Canada. Three other subspecies have been defined, i Long- 

 tailed Chickadee, P. a. septentrionalis, of the western interior and the Rocky Moun- 

 tain region, from southern Alaska to Kansas. 2 Oregon Chickadee, P. a. occi- 

 dentalis, of the Pacific coast-region from British Columbia to Oregon. 3 Yukon 

 Chickadee, P. a. turneri, of northern Alaska. 



This and other Educational Leaflets are for sale, at 5 cents each, by the National As^i a tion of 

 Audubon Societies, 1974 Broadway, New York City. Lists given on request. 



