CHICKADEE. 115 
Black-cap was seen to fly into a rotten stump near the roadside in Brookline, Mass. 
The stump was so much decayed that its top was readily broken off and the nest 
exposed. The mother refused to leave until forcibly taken off by the hand, and twice 
returned to the nest when thus removed, and it was only by holding her in the hand 
that an opportunity was given to ascertain there were seven young in her nest. She 
made no complaints, uttered no outcries, but resolutely and devotedly thrust herself 
between her nestlings and the seeming danger. When released she immediately flew 
back to them, covered them under her sheltering wings, and looked up in the face of 
her tormentors with a quiet and resolute courage that could not be surpassed.” 
During winter, when they roam about in flocks, they are very confiding. In orchards 
they often seem not to notice the presence of man, as their entire attention is absorbed 
in their favorite pursuit. But they actually see everything that is going on in their 
neighborhood. Their usual call-note is a very characteristic chick-a-dee-dee-dee, 
which is familiar to every friend of nature accustomed to out-door life. At other times 
cries like day, day, day, or ‘‘dee, dee, day,’ may be heard. In spring the notes 
exhibit a great variety of sounds and combinations, which are often blended to form a 
delightful twittering song. Thus we may hear, for instance, two extremely loud and 
euphonious notes, one high, the other low in pitch sounding like 2é-hé, zé-he. 
The nest is always placed in cavities, especially in old Woodpeckers’ holes. Some- 
times the pair will take great pains to excavate an opening for themselves, and not only 
in decaying wood, but even in limbs and trunks that are apparently hard and sound. 
The site of the nest is never high from the ground. The structure is always a soft 
felted ‘mass of hair, pieces of fur, downy feathers, moss, and dry grass. Although of 
loose texture, it is very warm, so that the eggs and nestlings are very secure against 
the changes of our spring weather. The eggs, from six to eight in number, are white, 
sprinkled more or less with reddish-brown markings, which in some specimens form a 
ring around the larger end, while in others they are distributed more regularly over 
the entire surface. é 
This Titmouse is one of our most useful birds. In winter the roaming flocks rid 
our fruit and ornamental trees from innumerable lurking insects, their eggs and larve. 
_ Says Dr. Brewer: “Though nearly omnivorous in the matter of food, they prefer insects 
to everything else, and the amount of good conferred by them on the farmers and 
the owners of woodlands in the destruction of inse¢ts in all their forms—egg, cater- 
pillar, larva, imago—must be very great. No chrysalis is too large to resist their 
penetrating bill, and no eggs so well hidden that they cannot find them out. I have 
known one to attack and fly off with the chrysalis of a ‘Woolly-bear,’ or salt-marsh 
caterpillar (Leucarctia acrza).”’ 
NAMES: CaickapDEe, Black-capped Chickadee, Eastern Chickadee, Black-capped Titmouse, Black-cap.— 
Schwarzkopfmeise (German). 
SCIENTIFIC NAMES: PARUS ATRICAPILLUS Linn. (1766). Poecile atricapilla Bonap. (1850). Parus 
palustris Nutt. (1832). 
DESCRIPTION: Sexes alike. Above, brownish-ashy. Top of the head and throat, deep black; sides of the 
head, white, wings and tail, like the upper parts, but more or less edged with hoary. Beneath, 
whitish; brownish-white on the sides, Bill and feet, plumbeous. 
Length, 5.00 to 5.25 inches, wing, 2.50; tail, 2.45 inches. 
