8 EVERYDAY BIRDS 



Perhaps no wild bird is more confiding. If a 

 man is at work in the woods in cold weather, and 

 at luncheon will take a little pains to feed the 

 chickadees that are sure to be more or less about 

 him, he wUl soon have them tame enough to pick 

 up crumbs at his feet, and even to take them 

 from his hand. 



Better even than crumbs is a bit of mince pie, 

 or a piece of suet. I have myself held out a 

 piece of suet to a chickadee as I walked through 

 the woods, and have had him fly down at once, 

 perch on my finger Hke a tame canary, and fall 

 to eating. But he was a bird that another man, 

 a woodcutter of my acquaintance, had tamed in 

 the manner above described. 



The chickadee's nest is built in a hole, gener- 

 ally in a decayed stump or branch. It is very 

 pretty to watch the pair when they are digging 

 out the hole. All the chips are carried away and 

 dropped at a little distance from the tree, so that 

 the sight of them littering the ground may not 

 reveal the birds' secret to an enemy. 



Male and female dress alike. The top of the 

 head is black — for which reason they are called 

 black-capped chickadees, or black-capped tit- 

 mice -;— and the chin is of the same color, while 

 the cheeks are clear white. If you are not sure 

 that you know the bird, stay near him till he 



