AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY 



36: 



If you have never found the home of a Chickadee, you can easily do 

 so. Next Spring before the leaves have come, go out armed with a 

 jack-knife. Perhaps you know of some place where birch trees are 

 abundant. If you do, see if you cannot find some among them that are 

 decayed and only a stump is left. Dig a hole about an inch in diame- 

 ter into these on the least exposed side, remember where they are and 

 about the end of May visit all of them and see how many of your par- 

 tially prepared homes are occupied. Last summer I found that four 

 pairs of Chickadees had decided that the locations selected by me were 

 satisfactory to them and all reared their families there. Chickadees 

 are contented in very small quarters and a stump three inches or more 

 in diameter is plenty large enough. They will successfully raise a 

 brood of six or eight little ones in a nest that you would not think one 

 bird could get into. The young seem to be piled in in layers and only 

 one or two at the top can be seen at a time. In spite of their limited 

 quarters, they are very neat birds and their nest is always clean. The 

 bed of feathers and moss that it is made of, is so soft that the young 

 sink way down out of sight in it, and it would seem as if those at the 



Photo from life by Geo. C. Embodv. 



THIS IS MY HOME. 



