The Surprising Contents of a Bircii Stub 



189 



failure of the light at the critical time, making it necessar\' to expose 

 with a wide open lens at the loss of a depth of focus. 



The picture presented, therefore, does not do the subject justice. 

 Nor can it tell of the pleasure with which each fledgling for the 

 first time stretched its wings and legs to their full extent and 

 preened its plumage with before unknown freedom. 



At the same time, they uttered a satisfied little liic-iicc-iii-e, in 



A CHICKADEE FAMILY 

 Photographed from nature by F. M. Chapman 



quaint imitation of their elders. \\'hen I whistled their well-known 

 phe-be note the}' were at once on the alert, and evidently expected 

 to be fed. 



The birds were within two or three days of leaving the nest, 

 and the sitting over, came the problem of returning the flock to a 

 cavity barely two inches in diameter, the bottom of which was almost 

 filled by one bird. 



I at once confess a failure to restore anything like the condition 

 in which they were found, and when the front of their dwelling was 

 replaced Chickadees were overflowing at the door. If their health- 

 fulness had not belied the thought, I should have supposed it im- 

 possible for them to exist in such close quarters. 



A few days later I found their home deserted, and as no other 

 pair of Chickadees was known to nest in the vicinity, I imagine them 

 to compose a troop of birds I sometimes meet in the neighborhood. 



