AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY. 353 



done all that went on inside could be viewed from the window. This 

 box is similar to one I invented, when a boy, to watch the nesting habits 

 of Swallows and Bluebirds. The glass is necessary only to prevent the 

 entrance of bird enemies or the premature egress of young birds when 

 the box is open. The box was so located that the direct rays of the 

 sun could not strike the young birds when the door was opened. The 

 photographer might prefer to have the sunlight strike directly upon 

 them, but when the principal object is to watch and preserve them, this 

 is a danger that must be avoided. The picture of the young birds in 

 the nest shows how readily they may be observed or photographed in 

 this manner. 



As the weather became severe some of the Chickadees evinced con- 

 siderable interest in this box, and toward Spring one or more of them 

 probably passed the night there. When Spring opened and the birds 

 began to pair and retire to the woods to breed, one pair remained be- 

 hind and began carrying nesting material into the box. Care was 

 observed that they might be left undisturbed in this laudable enter- 

 prise, and the members of the family were enjoined not to open the 

 "box. An excellent opportunity of observing the nest building was 

 thus lost for fear that otherwise they would be driven away and the 

 main object, the raising of the young in the box would be frustrated. 

 This excessive caution was perhaps not necessary, but nevertheless the 

 Chickadees were allowed to go on with their household arrangements 

 undisturbed, until at last one of our children, overcome by impatient 

 curiosity, opened the cover and stole a look into the box. It was 

 soon noised abroad that there were four or five "cunning little birds" 

 in the box. Investigation revealed seven. The birds were now 

 watched while feeding their young. The second picture shows how 

 anyone at the window could look directly into the nest, and see the old 

 "birds feeding and caring for their young. When this picture was taken 

 the male bird was in the nest feeding the young while the female was 

 clinging to the outside of the box, just beneath the entrance hole, with 

 a beak full of plant lice and spiders for the next feed. It is by such 

 methods of observation as this that we are able to learn much of the 

 character of the food birds feed to their young. The great value of the 

 Chickadee as a destroyer of hibernating insects and their eggs in Win- 

 ter has been shown by Dr. Weed's investigations. It is also, in the 

 warmer months, a great destroyer of injurious insects. We were there- 

 fore, prepared to find it feeding great quantities of insect food to the 

 young. During the greater part of the day the young were visited by 

 one or the other of the parent birds as often as once in three to five 

 minutes, and sometimes oftener. The old birds nearly always brought 



