1856. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



37 



ling a pound. Why isn't it ? Because the women 

 and girls don't know how to make it. For twenty 

 years past the girls' butter-making education has 

 been sadly neglected. They can play the piano, 

 but cannot churn ; can dance, but cannot skim 

 milk ; can talk a Httle French, but don't know how 

 to work out the buttermilk. The women who made 

 the butter in Westchester, Dutchess and Orange 

 Counties twenty years ago, are passing away, and 

 there are none to take their places. That's why 

 butter is high." 



For the New England Fanner. 



POETEAITS FROM THE FIELD AND 

 FARM-YARD. 



BY WILSON FLAGG. 

 THK CHICKADEE, OR BLACK. CAP TITMOUSE. 



There are but few individuals who have spent 

 their winters in the countiy who would not agree 

 with me that, to the lively notes of the Chickadee 

 we are indebted for a great part of the cheerfulness 

 that attends a wmter's walk. Though he is not 

 reckoned among the singing birds, there is a varie- 

 ty in his notes, uttered at different times, which, if 

 repeated in uninterrupted succession, would form 

 one of the most agreeable of woodland melodies. 

 The sounds from which he has derived his name 

 seem to be a s^^ecies of call-notes, and are probably 

 designed by nature to enable these Uttle birds, 

 while scattered singly over the forest, to signalize 

 their presence to others of their OAvai tribe. Hence 

 it may often have been observed, that when this call is 

 rapidly repeated, a multitude of these birds will 

 immediately assemble around the one that gave the 

 alarm. When no alarm is intended to be given, 

 the bird simply utters these notes occasionally, as 

 he passes from one tree to another. He is proba- 

 bly accustomed to hearing a response, and if one is 

 not soon heard, he will reiterate his call until it is 

 answered ; for as these birds do not forage the 

 woods in flocks, this continual conversation or hail 

 ing is carried on between them to satisfy their de- 

 sire for one another's company. 



These call-notes, with which every one is famil- 

 iar, are very lively in their expression, with a mix- 

 ture of querulousness in their tone that renders 

 them the more pleasing. The Chickadee, at other 

 times, utters two very plaintive notes, which, un- 

 like those of the generahty of birds, are separated 

 by a regular musical interval, making a fourth on 

 the descending scale. They shghtlj- resemble those 

 of the Pewee, except that the latter are on the as- 

 cending scale, and they are often supposed to come 

 from some other bird, so entirely different are they 

 from the common note of the Chickadee. I have 

 never been able to ascertain the circumstances un- 

 der which, the bird rejjeats tliis plaintive strain ; but 

 I know that it is uttered both in summer and winter. 

 In the early part of summer, these birds are ad- 

 dicted to a very low, but pleasant kind of warbling, 

 greatly varied but indistinctly enunciated, and which 

 wants only a sufficient loudness and distinctness to 

 entitle the bird to high merit as a songster. This 

 warbling does not seem to be intended to cheer his 

 partner, but rather as a sort of sohloquizing for his 

 own amusement. If such notes were uttered by the 

 young of a singing bird, we might suppose it to be 

 taking lessons in music, and that these were some 



of its first attempts. I have often heard a similar 

 kind of warbling from the Baltimore Oriole. 



The Chickadee is one of the most lively of our 

 birds, and on account of his permanent residence 

 with us, one that would be sadly missed if his race 

 were to become extinct. Though not a song-bird, 

 he is a lively chatterer and an agreeable companion 5 

 and as he never tarries long in one place, he never 

 tires one either by his presence or his garruhty. — 

 We associate him with all our pleasant winter walks, 

 in the orchard or in the woods, in the garden, or 

 our immediate enclosures. We have seen him on 

 still winter days, flitting from tree to tree in the 

 garden and orchard -with the most lively motions 

 and engaging attitudes, examining every twig and 

 branch, winding over and under and in and out, and 

 then with a few rapid notes, hopping to another 

 tree to go through the same pleasant evolutions. 

 Nothing can exceed either his cheerfulness or his 

 industry, of which he might most truly be made 

 emblematical. Even those who are confined to the 

 house are not excluded from a sight of these little 

 birds. In the country one cannot open a window 

 on a pleasant winter's morn, without a greeting by 

 them from the nearest tree in the garden.* 



The frequent companions of the Chickadee are 

 the common Creeper and the downy or speckled 

 Woodpecker ; but the Woodpecker is a more rest- 

 less bird, and seldom gives the branches of the trees 

 so thorough an examination as the Chickadee. The 

 former searches for certain grubs that are concealed 

 in the wood of the tree; he examines those places 

 only in wliich they are likely to be found, Hstens 

 for their scratchings, bores the -wood to obtain 

 them, and then flies off. But theChickadee looks 

 for insects on or near the surface, is never weary or 

 satisfied of his examinations, and does not confine 

 his search to the branches of trees. He examines 

 the fences, the under part of the eaves and the 

 clapboards of all buildings for crysalids and cocoons, 

 and destroys in the course of his foraging, many an 

 embryo moth and butterfl)-, which would become 

 the parent of noxious larvcT. Hence there is prob- 

 ably no other American bird that destroys in the 

 course of the year so large a quantity of insects, as 

 he continues his operations in the winter, when 

 there is but a small proportion of any other food to 

 be obtained, and he is obhged by necessity to be 

 very cUligent in his work. 



The cUfterent species above named often get as- 

 sembled in large numbers upon one tree, and meet- 

 in"' v\ith more company than is agreeable when 

 they are hungry, they will often on these occasions 

 make the wood resound with their noisy disputes. 

 They may perhaps have been gathered together by 

 some accidental note of alarm,_and on finding no 

 particular c.ause for it, the noise that follows re- 

 minds one of the extraordinary vociferation with 

 which young men and boys conclude a false alarm 

 of fire in the early part of" the night. These birds, 

 though evidently social, are not gregarious, and 

 seem never without vexation to endure the presence 

 of more than one or two companions. Those spe- 

 cies most generally associate in flocks whose food is 

 abundant in particular spots, and those which per- 

 form regular migrations. Jiui the Chickadees and 

 Woodpeckers can seldom obtain more than one or 

 two morsels from the same tree, and find it, there- 

 fore, most convenient to keep themselves separate 

 from their kindred. 



