166 USEFUL BIRDS. 
Much of the daylight life of the Chickadee is spent in a 
busy, active pursuit of or search for insects and their eggs. 
This is particularly the case in winter, when hibernating 
insects or their eggs must be most diligently sought, for 
then starvation always threatens. But the Chickadee is one 
of the few insectivorous birds that is keen-witted 
enough to find abundant food and safe shelter dur- 
ing the inclement northern winter. Nevertheless, 
its busy search for food is sometimes interrupted 
for so long a time during severe storms, when the 
trees are encased in ice, that it dies from cold and hunger. 
During a sleet storm Mr. C. E. Bailey saw two Chickadees 
creep under the loose clapboards of an old building for 
shelter. Their tails were so weighted down with ice that 
they could hardly fly, and had he not cared for them they 
might have perished. 
The Chickadee, notwithstanding its hardiness, requires 
protection from cold winds and storms at night. It finds 
such shelter either in some hollow tree or in some deserted 
bird nest. Late one cold and snowy afternoon Mr. Bailey 
detected a movement in a cavity under an old Crow’s nest, 
and on climbing the tree he found two Chickadees nestling 
there. They remained there until he had climbed to the 
nest and put his hand on one, when they flew out, only to 
return before he had reached the ground. Minot speaks 
of a Chickadee that slept alone in winter in a 
Pheebe’s nest under his veranda. It retires to its 
refuge rather early at night, and does not come 
out until the Tree Sparrow, Song Sparrow, and 
Junco are abroad. 
Although the digestive organs of the Chickadee are not 
those of a typical seed eater, it can digest and assimilate 
seeds at need, and often lives to a considerable extent on 
the seeds of the birch. Oats are sometimes eaten in winter, 
but they are taken from waste grain found along the roads. 
‘The fruit of the common sumacs, bayberry, and poison 
sumac are also eaten ; pieces of lichens and bud scales some- 
times form a portion of the stomach contents; but the food 
of this bird is preferably of an animal nature. In winter 
