SONG BIRDS OF ORCHARD AND WOODLAND. 171 



stated, the summer birds were able to destroy the worms 

 resulting from them. 



In early spring Chickadees feed much upon the ground in 

 the woods. At such times I have seen them opening soft- 

 ened acorns, that have lain all winter beneath the snow, and 

 extracting grubs from them. 



The Chickadee is not known to have any harmful habits. 

 Wilson says that it has been known to attack and injure its 

 own kind, but he gives no positive evidence of this, and I 

 can find no record of this habit elsewhere. Their fondness 

 for animal food leads them sometimes to eat the bodies of 

 other birds that have been stuck on thorns by the Butcher 

 Bird, or to feed from the carcass of any fox or other animal 

 left hanging in the woods by trappers. This habit probably 

 accounts for the fact that feathers or hair are sometimes found 

 in their stomachs. 



One mild day in the winter of 1903-04 Mr. Mosher saw 

 two Chickadees catching a few bees that had come out of a 

 hive and were becoming benumbed by the cold. This was 

 a particularly hard winter, during which many birds died of 

 starvation and exposure, and the birds were doing no harm, 

 as the bees, once away from the hive, would never have been 

 able to return to its shelter. The Chickadee is not known 

 to injure grain or cultivated fruit. Occasionally it pecks a 

 frozen apple left hanging on the tree in winter, but I can 

 find no record of its having injured fruit at any other time. 

 It would be hard to find a bird more harmless or more useful 

 than this species. 



White-breasted Nuthatch. 



Silta carolinensis. 



Length. About six inches. 



Adult. Upper parts a rather light bluish-gray ; crown, nape of neck, and upper 

 back black ; wings and tail marked somewhat with black and white ; lower 

 parts and sides of head mainly white. 



Nest. In an old post or an excavation in a tree trunk, which is sometimes hol- 

 lowed out by the birds. 



Eggs. Much like those of the Chickadee, but larger. 



Season. Resident. 



Most writers regard this common and familiar species as 

 a bird of the forest ; but in eastern Massachusetts it has 



