6o 



Bird- Lore 



When there come days of rain and thaw, life is not so hard. Whole troops 

 of Chickadees hunt the wet twigs, head down as often as head uj). They drop 

 to the ground, bird after l)ird, to search for insects and partridge berries among 



the wet leaves and the moss. 



On rainy days, in winter and 

 spring, Chickadee sings a theme 

 so iinchickadee-like that one is 

 slow to attribute it to the right 

 source. Near at hand, it sounds 

 somewhat like a Warbler's song 

 though much too forceful and 

 throaty; at a distance, the two 

 emphatic notes in it (though re- 

 versed in order) faintly suggest 

 the call of the Phoebe. The 

 theme consists, in the main, of 

 a slurred rise of a third fol- 

 lowed by a drop of a fifth (with 

 strong emphasis on the last 

 note), and it may be repeated 

 with the persistenc}- of the 

 Chebec. 



Neither this nor the familiar 

 " chick-a-dee-dee " gives any 

 hint of the two sustained flute- 

 like tones (the first higher than 

 the second) that sound through 

 the woods in spring and less 

 frecjuently at other times of the year. The first two calls are cheery and more 

 or less musical, but nasal or thnmty and relatively comm()n]jlace; the third is 

 worthy a musical genius. It varies in pitch, alternating high and low, apparently 

 bird answering bird. Sometimes the songs sjund at short intervals with 

 answers almost blending, in an effect of harmony. 



It is the first week in June; no flocks of Chickadees have been seen since 

 April, and in the woods where they hunted and sang tall growths of fern replace 

 the carpet of snow and dead leaves. 



Ap|)roach the woods by way of the meadow adjacent, where the lance-leaved 

 white violet is still common and where the runways of the meadow mouse thread 

 the grass. Yonder a young woodchuck suddenly ri.ses, looking like a ridiculous 

 little bear at this distance, then dro])s into the long grass, only to rise for a second 

 observation before he scuttles under the stones of the tumble-down wall. Now 

 a chipmunk sits hum|)e(l over and looks at \()U, then scampers under the stones. 

 At the edge of the woods, where tall i)ink azaleas are in blossom among taller 



THE COLDER IT IS THE MCJRE THE FEATH- 

 ERS ARE FLUFFED TO INCREASE THE SIZE 

 OF THE NON-CONDUCTING LAYERS OF AIR. 



