CHICKADEE. 



The Chickadee is a noisy, restless little acrobat as well 

 as an educated musician, and his appearance with a 

 dozen of his fellows in the pine-tree near my cottage is 

 the signal for a circus performance with an orchestral 

 accompaniment, including (if it is the fall season) the 

 penny-trumpet tones of a friendly Nuthatch or two. 

 There is at once a Babel of squeaks and chattering, and 

 an obligato yank, yank which announces the entry in 

 the ring of Mr. White-vested Nuthatch, who proceeds at 

 once to walk upside-downl Then the nimble Chicka- 

 dees shake up the old pine-tree into active life until 

 every green needle quivers with excitement, and the 

 little gray-costumed tumblers are at it with all the 

 sprightliness of which they are capable. That means 

 that most of them are wrong end up, the others are bal- 

 ancing sideways, and that while you are endeavoring to 

 adjust your opera-glass every one has turned a summer- 

 sault and flown to the other side of the tree, after having 

 devoured every insect's egg that could be found on the 

 nearer side I It is a lively performance and the " band " 

 continues the squeaks and the " dee dees" until you in- 

 terpose the magic influence of two pure whistled high 

 tones, when there is a momentary pause and you are an- 

 swered probably in analogous tones: 



/ whistled- * The bird rt*pondtd~ 



I have more than once persuaded the Chickadee to drop 

 his own notes and adopt mine, but I have never yet been 

 able to inveigle him back again to the first ones. 



Wilson says of the Chickadee; " it has been found on 

 the western coast of America as far north as lat. 62; it 

 is common at Hudson's Bay, and most plentiful there 

 during winter, as it then approaches the settlements in 

 quest of food. Protected by a remarkably thick covering 

 of long, soft, downy plumage, it braves the severest cold 

 of those northern regions." In Central Park, N. Y., in 

 the Arnold Arboretum, near Boston, in the White Moun- 

 tains, and in the vicinity of Gloucester, Mass., Chicka- 



