THE CHICKADEE 9 



pronounces his own name. He will be pretty 

 certain to do it, sooner or later, especially if you 

 excite him a little by squeaking or chirping to 

 him. 



Although the chickadee is small and delicate- 

 looking, he seems not to mind the very coldest 

 o£ weather. Give him enough to eat, and the 

 wind may whistle. He picks his food, tiny in- 

 sects, insects' eggs, and the like, out of crevices 

 in the bark of trees and about the ends of twigs, 

 and so is seldom or never without resources. The 

 deepest snows do not cover up his dinner-table. 

 His worst days, no doubt, are those in which 

 everything is covered with sleet. 



One of his prettiest traits is his skill in hang- 

 ing back downward from the tip of a swinging 

 branch or from the under side of a leaf while in 

 search of provender. As a small boy, who had 

 probably been to the circus, once said, the chick- 

 adee is a "first-rate performer on the flying 

 trapeze." 



