220 Bird - Lore 
to work for, I was careful to make the hole a little too small to admit the 
Chickadee’s body. 
I had scarcely left off working when the Chickadees came for inspection. 
They peeked in, but did not try to enter. During several days they made 
numerous inspections of this new home, as well as of the Wren house, and the 
Bluebird house, not far away. 
On April 4, the house was leased and the contract signed, for the birds 
began to enlarge the hole. They 
worked by turns, and it was the 
daintiest, cheeriest, lovingest 
working that I ever saw in the 
bird world. Their working, how- 
ever, was at first confined to 
the early forenoons, for it was 
not to be expected that lovers. 
could spend all their time 
working. 
On April 9, at 11.30 o’clock, 
the hole was large enough, and 
a bird entered. Judging from 
the time it spent inspecting the 
one large room, I take it to have 
been the female. A number of 
days were now spent in care- ~ 
fully rounding the edges of the 
entrance, and on April 14 the 
pair began to carry in material. 
An old weather-beaten bit of 
rope the dog had laid just un- 
der my window, and to this 
they came for loose fibers. What 
plucky little workers they were, 
planting their feet upon the rope, and diving their little bills into it, and heay- 
ing away like veritable sailors! Another old rope hung tied to a limb of the 
nearest tree, and to this they went for more fibers. What difference does it 
make to these birds whether they are right-side-up or up-side-down? To 
this rope they clung in all attitudes, often making it swing by their efforts, 
and clinging and pulling away as it swung. 
I am writing as though both male and female did the work. Their colors 
are the same, though the male is a trifle larger. But their movements are so 
rapid that it is not always easy to be sure which bird enters the nest with 
material. I suspect, however, that the female does most of the work of carry- 
ing in material, for the larger bird often acted in a very masculine fashion, 
THE CHICKADEE’S HOME-SITE 
