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ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PRACTICAL HORTICULTURE 



hold in check these insidious foes of hor- 

 ticulture. The vegetable food consists of 

 seeds of poison ivy, or poison oak, a few 

 weed seeds, and a few small fruits, 

 mostly elderberries. 



Chickadee 



Penthestes atricapiUus 

 Length, about five and one-fourth 

 inches. 



Range 

 Resident in the United States (except 

 the southern half east of the plains), 

 Canada and Alaska. 



Habits and Economic Statns 



Because of its delightful notes, its con- 

 fiding ways, and its fearlessness, the 

 chickadee is one of our best-known birds. 

 It responds to encouragement, and by 

 hanging within its reach a constant sup- 

 ply of suet the chickadee can be made a 

 regular visitor to the garden and orchard. 

 Though insignificant in size, titmice are 

 far from being so from the economic 

 standpoint, owing to their numbers and 

 activity. While one locality is being 

 scrutinized for food by a larger bird, 10 

 are being searched by the smaller species. 

 The chickadee's food is made up of in- 

 sects and vegetable matter in the pro- 

 portion of 7 of the former to 3 of the 

 latter. Moths and caterpillars are fav- 

 orites and form about one-third of the 

 whole. Beetles, ants, wasps, bugs, flies, 

 grasshoppers, and spiders make up the 

 rest. The vegetable food is composed of 

 seeds, largely those of pines, with a few 

 of the poison ivj- and some weeds. There 

 are few more useful birds than the chick- 

 adees. 



White-Breasted \nthatch 



Sitta carolinensis 

 Length, six inches. White below, above 

 gray, with a black head. 



Range 



Resident in the United States, Southern 

 Canada and Mexico. 



Habits and Economic Status 



This bird might readily be mistaken 

 by a careless observer for a small wood- 

 pecker, but its note, an oft-repeated yank. 

 is very unwoodpecker-like. and, unlike 

 either woodpeckers or creepers it climbs 



downward as easily as upward and seems 

 to set the laws of gravity at defiance. 

 The name was suggested by the habit of 

 wedging nuts, especially beechnuts, in 

 the crevices of bark so as to break them 

 open by blows from the sharp, strong 

 bill. The nuthatch gets its living from 

 the trunks and branches of trees, over 

 which it creeps from daylight to dark. 

 Insects and spiders constitute a little 

 more than 50 per cent of its food. The 

 largest items of these are beetles, moths, 

 and caterpillars, with ants and wasps. 

 The animal food is all in the bird's favor 

 except a few ladybird beetles. More than 

 half of the vegetable food consists of mast, 

 i. e., acorns and other nuts or large 

 seeds. One-tenth of the food is grain, 

 mostly waste corn. The nuthatch does 

 no injury, so far as known, and much 

 good. 



Brown Creeper 

 Certhia familiaris americana and other 

 subspecies 

 Length five and one-half inches. 



Range 



Breeds from Nebraska, Indiana, North 

 Carolina (mountains), and Massachusetts 

 north to Southern Canada, also in the 

 mountains of the Western United States, 

 north to Alaska, south to Nicaragua; 

 winters over most of its range. 



Habits and Economic Status 



Rarely indeed is the creeper seen at 

 rest It appears to spend its life in an 

 incessant scramble over the trunks and 

 branches of trees, from which it gets all 

 its food. It is protectively colored so 

 as to be practically invisible to its 

 enemies and. though delicately built, pos- 

 sesses amazingly strong claws and feet. 

 Its tiny eyes are sharp enough to detect 

 insects so small that most other species 

 pass them by, and altogether the creeper 

 fills a unique place in the ranks of our 

 insect destroj-ers. The food consists of 

 minute insects and insects' eggs, also 

 cocoons of tineid moths, small wasps, ants, 

 and bugs, especially scales and plant lice, 

 with some small caterpillars. As the 

 creeper remains in the United States 

 throughout the year, it naturally secures 



