CHICKADEE (Penthestes atricapillus) 
Length, about 514 inches. 
Range: Resident in the United States (ex- 
cept the southern half east of the plains), 
Canada, and Alaska. 
Habits and economic status: Because of its 
delightful notes, its confiding ways, and _ its 
fearlessness, the chickadee is one of our best- 
known birds. It responds to encouragement, 
and by hanging within its reach a constant 
supply of suet the chickadee can be made a 
regular visitor to the garden and orchard. 
Though insignificant in size, titmice are far 
from “being so from the economic standpoint, 
owing to their numbers and activity. While 
one locality is being scrutinized for food by 
a larger bird, 10 are being searched by the 
smaller species. The chickadees food is made 
up of insects and vegetable matter in the pro- 
portion of 7 of the former to 3 of the latter. 
Moths and caterpillars are favorites and form 
about one-third of the whole. Beetles, ants, 
wasps, bugs, flies, grasshoppers, and spiders 
make up the rest. The vegetable food is com- 
posed of seeds, largely those of pines, with a 
few of the poison ivy and some weeds. There 
are few more useful birds than the chickadees. 
BROWN. CREEPER (Certhia familiaris 
americana and other subspecies) 
Length, 5% inches. 
Range: Breeds from Nebraska, Indiana, 
North Carolina (mountains), and Massachu- 
setts north to southern Canada, also in the 
mountains of the western United States, north 
to Alaska, south to Nicaragua; winters over 
most of its range. 
Habits and economic status: Rarely indeed 
is the creeper seen at rest. It appears to spend 
its life in an incessant scramble over the trunks 
and branches of trees, from which it gets all 
its food. It is protectively colored so as to be 
practically invisible to its enemies and, though 
delicately built, possesses amazingly strong 
claws and feet. Its tiny eyes are sharp enough 
to detect insects so small that most other spe- 
cies pass them by, and altogether the creeper 
fills a unique place in the ranks of our insect 
destroyers. The food consists of minute in- 
sects and insects’ eggs, also cocoons of tineid 
moths, small wasps, ants, and bugs, especially 
scales and plant lice, with some small cater- 
pillars. As the creeper remains in the United 
States throughout the year, it naturally secures 
hibernating insects and insects’ eggs, as well as 
spiders and spiders’ eggs, that are missed by 
the summer birds, On its bill of fare we find 
no product of husbandry nor any useful insects. 
10 
WHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCH 
(Sitta carolinensis) 
Length, 6 inches. 
with a black head. 
Range: Resident in the United States, south- 
ern Canada, and Mexico. 
Habits and economic status: This bird might 
readily be mistaken by a careless observer for 
a small woodpecker, but its note, an oft-re- 
peated yank, is very unwoodpecker-like, and, 
unlike either woodpeckers or creepers, it climbs 
downward as easily as upward and seems to 
set the laws of gravity at defiance, The name 
was suggested by the habit of wedging nuts, 
especially beechnuts, in the crevices of bark so 
as to break them open by blows from the sharp, 
strong bill. The nuthatch gets its living from 
the trunks and branches of trees, over which 
it creeps from daylight to dark. Insects and 
spiders constitute a little more than 50 per cent 
of its food. The largest items of these are 
beetles, moths, and caterpillars, with ants and 
wasps. The animal food is all in the bird's 
favor except a few ladybird» beetles. More 
than half of the vegetable food consists of 
mast—that is, acorns and other nuts or large 
seeds, One-tenth of the food is grain, mostly 
waste corn. The nuthatch does no injury, so 
far as known, and much good. 
White below, above gray, 
HOUSE WREN (Troglodytes aédon) 
Length, 434 inches. The only one of our 
wrens with wholly whitish underparts that 
lacks a light line over the eye. 
Range: Breeds throughout the United States 
(except the South Atlantic and Gulf States) 
and southern Canada; winters in the southern 
United States and Mexico. 
Habits and economic status: The rich, bub- 
bling song of the familiar little house wren is 
one of the sweetest associations connected 
with country and suburban life. Its tiny body, 
long bill, sharp eyes, and strong feet peculiarly 
adapt it for creeping into all sorts of nooks 
and crannies where lurk the insects it feeds on. 
A cavity in a fence post, a hole in a tree, or a 
box will be welcomed alike by this busybody 
as a nesting site; but since the advent of the 
quarrelsome English sparrows such domiciles 
are at a premium and the wren’s eggs and 
family are safe only in cavities having en- 
trances too small to admit the sparrow. Hence 
it behooves the farmer’s boy to provide boxes 
the entrances to which are about an inch in 
diameter, nailing these under gables of barns 
and outhouses or in orchard trees. In this way 
the numbers of this useful bird can be in- 
creased, greatly to the advantage of the farmer. 
Grasshoppers, beetles, caterpillars, bugs, and 
spiders are the principal elements of its food. 
Cutworms, weevils, ticks, and plant lice are 
among the injurious forms eaten. The nest- 
lings of house wrens consume great quantities 
of insects. 
