CHICKADEE. 
Parus atricapillus Linn. 
PuatTE XXI. Fic. 2. 
NLY a few species of Titmice inhabit our Northern States. Of them, the common 
CHICKADEE, or BLACK-CAPPED TITMOUSE, is the most abundant and best known. 
In New England, and almost in all the Northern States, it is a familiar bird during the 
breeding season, and still more common in winter, when they arrive in considerable 
numbers from northern regions. The range of this species extends west to the edge of 
the Great Plains, and south to the Potomac and Ohio Valleys. Its southern limit, 
however, cannot be exactly defined, as many observers have confounded it with the 
Carolina Chickadee, to which it bears great similarity. Prof. Wm. Brewster found it a 
few years ago as far south as the mountains of western North Carolina. 
In central Wisconsin where coniferous trees abound, I found the Chickadee in 
considerable numbers the whole year around. There I observed it on the edges of 
woods in the vicinity of thickets of raspberries and blackberries, hazel copses, and in 
swampy places covered with a variety of trees and shrubs, especially where many old 
stumps and trees with natural cavities or Woodpeckers’ holes were found. In summer 
these Titmice shun the proximity of human dwellings, but in fall and winter they often 
visit the orchards and gardens in larger or. smaller flocks. In northern Illinois, the 
Chickadee very rarely breeds, and even in fall and winter it is not regularly 
met. In the Eastern States and New England, it seems to be everywhere common 
and familiar. 
“It is a resident species,’ says Dr. T. M. Brewer, ‘‘nesting early in May, and 
‘having full-fledged nestlings early in June. While it seems to prefer the edges of woods 
as best affording the means of food and shelter, it by no means confines itself to these 
localities, not only appearing familiarly around the dwellings in the winter season, but 
also occasionally breeding in open and exposed places. A hollow post of a fence in the 
midst of open cultivated fields, a decayed stump near the side of a public highway, a 
hollow log in a frequented farm-yard, and even the side of an inhabited dwelling, are 
localities these birds have been known to select in which to rear their young. In the 
winter they not unfrequently extend their visits, in search of food, into the very heart 
of large and crowded cities, where they seem as much at home and as free from alarm 
as in the seclusion of the forest, searching every crack, where insect larve or eggs can be 
hid. On one occasion a pair had built its nest over a covered well which connects with 
the dwelling by a side door, through which water was drawn at all hours of the day by 
means of buckets and a rope, the wheel for which was in close proximity to their nest. 
They manifested, however, no uneasiness, and even after the young were ready to fly, 
the whole family would return to the place for shelter at night and during inclement 
weather.— Their courage and devotion to their young is a remarkable trait with the 
whole race, and with none more than with the present species. On one occasion a 
