THE CHICKADEES. 49 



THE CHICKADEES. 



The chickadees cannot be classed among the typical birds of the 

 groves, if the use of that term is limited to the trees of the 

 parks and the pastures, for they are at liome in the trees at largo, 

 and care but little where the trees grow. I have heard their 

 chick-a-dee-dee-dee. in the quiet park at Toronto, amid the hubbub of 

 the Place D'Arm^, in Montreal, and in the wilderness forests of 

 New Brunswick, and everywhere it was the same cheery carol, 

 and everywhere the singers were the same busy, active, merry 

 Bohemians of the wing. The deep woodland is the original home 

 of these feathered vagabonds, but their Bohemian spirit leads them 

 to "wander with the wandering wind," and makes them content 

 wherever grows a clump of trees that will yield them food and 

 shelter. 



The black-capped chickadee, which is the most common in Canada, 

 is usually put down among the ' ' resident " species, because it is 

 found in the settled districts of these Eastern Provinces during the 

 entire year ; but his cousin, the Hudsonian chickadee, occurs in the 

 more southern portions in winter only. I have found the nest of 

 the Hudsonian in New Brunswick, — near St. John, and on the 

 Madawaska, — but the birds are much more numerous there in 

 winter than during the warm weather. 



To the casual observer the two species appear to have similar 

 habits, and to sing similar songs, but a little experience will enable 

 one to distinguish them with ready accuracy. Both feed on the 

 insect mites and insect eggs to be found in the crannies of the ba rk, 

 and both search for this food with the same careless, go-as-you- 

 please indifference to decorous movement, and with a fine display 

 of gymnastic skill. 



The Hudsonian, as well as his cousin, makes a nest of felted fur 

 or vegetable wool, and places the nest at the bottom of an excavat- 

 ion in a decayed stump. Both sing the same chick-a-dee-dee-dee and 

 vary it to t'se-dee-dee and chick-a-pu-pu-pu, and add to their 

 repertoire several abbreviations of these as well as single notes 

 introduced, like exclamation points, into their merry babbling. 

 (The black-capped alone sings the j9/ice-6e note, I think). Yet just 

 as the plumage of the Hudsonian is a little less fluffy — more stiff 

 4 



