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your attention and make you forget that you 

 caught him fur hunting. That is because 

 (^'gee^ee-Iokh-s/'s you are near his nest. 



Once, after such a performance, I pre- 

 tended to go away ; but I only hid in a pine 

 thicket. Chickadee listened awhile, then 

 hopped down to the ground, picked up some- 

 thing quickly, and flew away. It was the 

 lining for his nest near by. He had dropped 

 it when I surprised him, so that I should not 

 suspect him of nest-building. 



Such a bright, helpful little fellow should 

 have never an enemy in the world; and I 

 think he has to contend against fewer than 

 most birds. The shrike is his worst enemy, 

 the swift swoop of his cruel beak being always 

 fatal in a flock of chickadees. Fortunately 

 the shrike is rare with us ; one seldom finds 

 his nest, with poor Ch'geegee impaled on a 

 sharp thorn near by, surrounded by a varied 

 lot of ugly beetles. The owl sometimes 

 hunts him at night; but he sleeps in the 

 thick pine shrubs, close up against a branch, 

 with the pine needles all about him, making 

 it very dark; and what with the darkness, 



