AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY. 



273 



Photo by C. A. Reed. 



MALE CHICKADEE AND HIS FAMILY. 



little ones on an average of about once in four minutes, the birds plan- 

 ning their visits so that one of them was present the greater part of the 

 time. During the time that we were there, they fed them nothing ex- 

 cept very small insects or plant lice, and small white worms; the lice 

 they would bring in large clusters but the worms were brought singly. 

 As nearly as we could make out most of the worms were brought by 

 the male bird, so we concluded that he was inclined to be lazy or else 

 was something of a philosopher. 



After we had made several pictures of the birds entering and leaving 

 the nesting hole, w^e enlarged the opening so that we could see the little 

 Chickadees. We found they were not so very little after all, for with 

 the exception of one, they were fully large enough to leave the nest 

 and, but for their short tails, might pass for adult birds. One of them 

 escaped lhrough,our fingers and flew away over the tops of the bushes 

 until lost to view; several of the others made shorter flights and were 

 brought back again to sit with their brothers and sisters. There were 

 six in the nest when we opened it, but as one of these escaped we had. 



