11 



and the needles to stick in his eyes, the owl 

 generally gives up the search and hunts in 

 more open woods. Ch'dee§ee-hkh^is 



Sometimes the hawks try to catch him, but 

 it takes a very quick and a very small pair of 

 wings to follow Chickadee. Once I was 

 watching him hanging, head down, from an 

 oak twig to which the dead leaves were 

 clinging ; for it was winter. Suddenly there 

 was a rush of air, a flash of mottled wings 

 and fierce yellow eyes and cruel claws. 

 Chickadee whisked out of sight under a leaf. 

 The hawk passed on, brushing his pinions. 

 A brown feather floated down among the 

 oak leaves. Then Chickadee was hanging, 

 head down, just where he was before. " Tsic 

 a dee? Didn't I. fool him!" he seemed to 

 say. He had just gone round his twig, and 

 under a leaf, and back again ; and the danger 

 was over. When a hawk misses like that he 

 never strikes again. 



Boys generally have a kind of sympathetic 

 liking for Chickadee. They may be cruel or 

 thoughtless to other birds, but seldom so to 

 him. He seems somehow like themselves. 



