BIRDS mv NftTURE 



ILLUSTRATED BY COLOR PHOTOGRAPHY. 



THE BLACK-CAPPED CHICKADEE. 



"Chic-chickadee dee !" I saucily say; 



My heart it is sound, my throat it is gay! 



Every one that I meet I merrily greet 



With a chickadee dee, chickadee dee! 



To cheer and to cherish, on roadside and street. 



My cap was made jaunty, my note was made sweet. 



Chickadeedee, Chickadeedee! 



No bird of the winter so merry and free; 



Yet sad is my heart, though my song one of glee, 



For my mate ne'er shall hear my chickadeedee, 



I "chickadeedee" in forest and glade, 



"Day, day, day!" to the sweet country maid; 



From autumn to spring time I utter my song 



Of chickadeedee all the day long! 



The silence of winter my note breaks in twain. 



And I "chickadeedee" in sunshine and rain. 



Chickadeedee Chickadeedee! 



No bird of the winter so merry and free; 



Yet sad is my heart, though my song one of glee. 



For my mate ne'er shall bear my chickadeedee. — C. C. M, 



SAUCY little bird, so active 

 and familiar, the Black- 

 Capped Chickadee, is also 

 recognized as the Black 

 Capped Titmouse, East- 

 ern Chickadee, and Northern Chick- 

 adee. He is found in the southern 

 half of the eastern United States, 

 north to or beyond forty degrees, west 

 to eastern Texas and Indian Territory. 



The favorite resorts of the Chickadee 

 are timbered districts, especially in 

 the bottom lands, and where there are 

 red bud trees, in the soft wood of 

 which it excavates with ease a hollow 

 for its nest. It is often wise enough, 

 however, to select a cavity already 

 made, as the deserted hole of the 

 Downy Woodpecker, a knot hole, or a 

 hollow fence rail. In the winter sea- 

 son it is very familiar, and is seen 

 about door yards and orchards, even 

 in towns, gleaning its food from the 

 kitchen remnants, where the table 

 cloth is shaken, and wherever it may 

 chance to find a kindly hospitality. 



In an article on "Birds as Protectors 

 of Orchards," Mr. E. H. Forbush says 

 of the Chickadee : "There is no bird 

 that compares with it in destroying 

 the female canker-worm moths and 

 their eggs." He calculated that one 

 Chickadee in one day would destroy 

 5,550 eggs, and in the twenty-five 

 days in which the canker-worm moths 

 run or crawl up the trees 138,750 eggs. 

 Mr. Forbush attracted Chickadees to 



one orchard by feeding them in winter, 

 and he says that in the following 

 summer it was noticed that while 

 trees in neighboring orchards were 

 seriously damaged by canker-worms, 

 and to a less degree by tent caterpillars, 

 those in the orchard which had been 

 frequented by the Chickadee during 

 the winter and spring were not 

 seriously infested, and that compara- 

 tively few of the worms and caterpillars 

 were to be found there. His conclu- 

 sion is that birds that eat eggs of 

 insects are of the greatest value to the 

 farmer, as they feed almost entirely on 

 injurious insects and their eggs, and 

 are present all winter, where other 

 birds are absent. 



The tiny nest of the Chickadee is 

 made of all sorts of soft materials, such 

 as wool, fur, feathers, and hair placed 

 in holes in stumps of trees. Six to 

 eight eggs are laid, which are white^ 

 thickly sprinkled with warm brown. 



Mrs. Osgood Wright tells a pretty 

 incident of the Chickadees, thus: "In 

 the winter of 189 1-2, when the cold 

 was severe, the snow deep, and the 

 tree trunks often covered with ice, the 

 Chickadees repaired in flocks daily to 

 the kennel of our old dog Colin and 

 fed from his dish, hopping over his 

 back and calling Chickadee, dee, dee, 

 in his face, a proceeding that he never 

 in the least resented, but seemed 

 rather to enjoy it." 



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