Bird=Lore 
A BI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE 
DEVOTED TO THE STUDY AND PROTECTION OF BIRDS 
OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE AUDUBON SCCIETIES 
Vol. XII NOVEMBER—DECEMBER, 1910 No. 6 
A Chickadee Home 
By CRAIG S. THOMS, Vermillion, S. D. 
With photographs by the author 
OR several years I had been trying to induce a pair of Chickadees to 
ia build their nest in my yard, where I could watch them in their home 
life. They boarded with me in the bleak winters, but, notwithstand- 
ing all my alluring boxes, and hollow-wood chunks, the “call of the wild” 
swept them away to orchard or grove at the first peep of spring. 
But the spring of 1909 brought me good fortune. A cherry tree that stood 
about fifty feet from my study window grew from the ground double, that 
is, by two trunks, one of which had for several years been dying. I did not 
like to lose the tree, but I would give half a tree any time for a Chickadee’s 
nest. But to make sure that the Chickadees would build in it was the problem. 
Proceeding on the principle that birds, as well as men, covet the largest 
results with the least amount of work, and knowing full well that saw, hammer, 
and chisel were more effective tools, at least for the rough part of the work, 
than tiny Chickadee bills, I sawed across the dead tree about three feet from 
the ground, cutting in about three inches; about a foot above the first cut 
I made a second; then, after carefully cutting the bark down the sides with 
my knife, so that it would not tear, I split off the whole front side of the Chick- 
adee’s house—that is, what I hoped would be a Chickadee’s house. This 
done, with hammer and chisel I made the chips fly until I had excavated 
a gourd-shaped hole, very like a Chickadee’s nest that I had seen years 
before. 
As I worked, the pair of Chickadees that I had been feeding all winter 
cheered me on from nearby trees, seeming to wonder how I could produce 
such large chips. 
When the hole was completed, I hollowed the part I had split off so as to 
make the excavation as symmetrical as possible. Then, with an auger I 
bored a hole at the top of the split-off piece, and fastened the piece back in 
its place with a large screw at each corner. 
On the principle that even birds do not appreciate what they do not have 
