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Economic Status. Few birds are more useful to mankind than the 
Chickadee. Though small, it is constantly at work, and being with us 
all winter its good work is continued throughout the year. All insects 
are very small in their early stages and the little bird that devours a whole 
cluster of eggs at a gulp may benefit agriculture as greatly as a larger 
one that makes a meal from one or two large caterpillars or adult insects 
but scorns the minute ones. The prying habits of the Chickadee and 
its companions the Nuthatch, Creeper, etc., and their close examination 
of the small crevices where many insects hide or hibernate render their 
services of great value to the husbandman, especially in winter when 
insect enemies are scarce, and the total taken through the year by these 
allied species must be very great. These active little birds demand com- 
paratively large quantities of food to resist the intense cold and the small- 
ness of their game necessitates the consumption of innumerable indi- 
viduals. 
The Chickadee’s food is 68 per cent insect and 32 per cent vegetable. 
The former comprises eggs, larve, chrysalids, and small insects, largely 
weevils, and includes some of the worst orchard and crop pests. The 
vegetable matter is largely small seed and wild fruit. No charges of 
damage to cultivated varieties have been advanced. Chickadees can 
easily be induced to come about the home grounds in winter and with a 
little coaxing become tame enough even to alight on the person and feed 
from the hand. A lump of suet fastened to a tree trunk is a never failing 
attraction to them and ensures their constant visits. 
740. Brown-headed Chickadee. HUDSONIAN CHICKADEE. FR.—LA MESANGE DU 
canapa. Penthestes hudsonicus. L, 5-12. Similar to the Black-capped Chickadee but 
duller and darker in general tone; cap greyish brown of nearly the same colour as the back; 
throat patch present but veiled; flanks rufous tinted. 
; Distinctions. The brownish cap and back and general duller and less contrasted 
coloration. 
Field Marks. A very dark Chickadee with coloration diffused and pattern lacking 
distinctness. Its characteristic Chickadee note is hoarse but otherwise similar to that of the 
common Chickadee. 
Nesting. In holes in trees and stubs in nest of moss and felted fur. 
Distribution. Northern America from beyond settlement to the tree limits. 
SUBSPECIES. The Brown-headed Chickadee is represented by two subspecies in 
eastern Canada. The type form, the Husdonian Chickadee, extends to central Ontario, 
east of which it is replaced by the Acadian Chickadee P.h. littoralis which differs from it 
slightly in size and colour. 
The Brown-headed Chickadee is so similar in habits to the Black- 
capped that further description would be little more than repetition. 
FAMILY—SYLVIIDH. OLD-WORLD WARBLERS, KINGLETS, AND 
GNATCATCHERS. 
An old world family represented in America by only a few species. 
Of these, the Old World Warblers, not to be confused with our Wood 
Warblers, do not occur in eastern Canada, the Kinglets are represented 
by two species, and the Gnatcatcher by one species. 
