FAMILY PmHdm. 



not differ in coloring. Nest generally in a hole (often 

 excavated by the birds themselves) in a post, stump, 

 or tree-trunk, perhaps ten to fifteen feet from the 

 ground; it is built of moss, grass, feathers, plant-down, 

 or similar soft material. Egg white spotted with ruddy 

 brown. The bird is common from Illinois and Pennsyl- 

 vania northward. It breeds throughout this range and 

 along the higher Alleghanies as far south as South 

 Carolina. 



The entertaining little Black-capped Chickadee is a 

 favorite among all bird-lovers, and with good reason. 

 Few of our wild birds are so sociable, fearless, and re- 

 sponsive. Whistle to the little fellow and he invariably 

 replies; one might whistle all day to the Oriole without 

 eliciting the slightest response. Call the Chickadee in 

 winter, show him that you have something good to eat, 

 and eventually with patience and cautious quietude on 

 your part he will feed from your hand; that is more 

 than can be done with the Oriole. This is the bird, too, 

 who braves the winter's cold, and makes himself at home 

 in the dooryards of New England farm-houses, the one 

 of whom Emerson wrote, 



" This scrap of valor just for play 

 Fronts the north wind in waistcoat gray, 

 As if to shame my weak behavior. " 



He gets his name, of course, from his rather squeaky 

 and harsh call-notes; every child knows them, chick-a- 

 dee-dee-dee-dee which, however unmusical, could be 

 placed upon the treble staff thus: 



There is no certainty about pitch in such mixed tones as 

 these, but there is an absolute mechanical rhythm which 

 is readily transcribed upon the music bars. For in- 

 stance; one must know without a knowledge of music 



228 



