44 BIRDS THROUGH AN OPERA-GLASS. 



tent to sit perched up on top of an open nest, but 

 builds in the side of a stump or a dead stub, and 

 retires from the world with the determination of 

 a nun. 



You will wonder at first how such a tiny bill as 

 the chickadee's can be used as a pickaxe, but if 

 you notice it carefully you will see that, without 

 being clumsy, it is very stout, for it is arched 

 enough to give it strength. Of course the chick- 

 adee sometimes nests in natural cavities in trees ; 

 and Audubon says old woodpeckers' holes are oc- 

 casionally used ; but most writers agree in think- 

 ing that it usually makes its own excavation, 

 occasionally in comparatively hard wood. 



One morning I was hurrying noisily through 

 the underbrush of a clearing to get home in time 

 for breakfast, when, suddenly, I came face to face 

 with a pair of chickadees. Even then they did 

 not stir, but sat eying me calmly for several sec- 

 onds. I suspected a nest, and when they had 

 flown off, I discovered the opening in a decayed 

 stub close by my side. The stub was a small one, 

 being perhaps eight or ten inches in diameter and 

 four and a half feet high. The entrance was 

 about a foot from the top, and the nest itself a 

 foot or more below this. What a tasteful little 

 structure it was ! Although out of sight, it was 

 far prettier than most bird-houses on exhibition 

 in the forest. Bits of fresh green moss gave it a 

 dainty air, and brought out the dark gray of the 



