346 BIRDS OP ALABAMA 



it in a deserted woodpecker's hole or a natural cavity in a tree 

 or stump, 4 to 12 feet from the ground. Audubon, writing of 

 this bird's habits, says: 



It moves along the branches, searches in the chinks, flies to 

 the ends of twigs and hangs to them by its feet, whilst the bill 

 is engaged in detaching a beech or hazelnut, an acorn or a chin- 

 quapin, upon all of which it feeds, removing them to a large 

 branch, where, having secured them in a crevice, it holds them 

 with both feet, and breaks the shell by repeated blows of its 

 bill.* 



Food habits. — The habit of feeding upon mast mentioned 

 by Audubon is confirmed by stomach examinations. The bird 

 is known to feed, also, on the berries of the dogwood and Vir- 

 ginia creeper, and upon small fruits, such as the mulberry. 

 It consumes many spiders and a variety of insects, including 

 beetles, bugs, and crickets. Judd examined a stomach taken 

 in July and found in it "several blueberries, a longicom beetle, 

 and a large cutworm."t 



CAROLINA CHICKADEE: Pmthestes caroUnensis 

 carolinensis (Audubon). 



State records. — The Carolina chickadee (fig. 29), is gen- 

 erally distributed, and in most localities is fairly common. It 

 is recorded from Fort Payne, Sand Mountain (Jackson Coun- 

 ty), Talladega Mountains, Squaw Shoals, Natural Bridge, 

 Ardell, Woodbine, Auburn, Seale, Abbeville, Castleberry, and 

 Mobile. Fresh eggs have been found at Barachias, March 29 ; 

 York, April 2; Greensboro, April 16; Autaugaville, April 16; 

 and Leighton, April 4, 18, and 27. 



General habits. — The chickadee is not at all particular as 

 to the type of country it inhabits, but may be found in low 

 bottom-land timber and wooded swamps as well as in the drier 

 timber among the hills and in mixed woods. Like the majority 

 of the small birds, it does not frequent the extensive pine flats 

 of the coast region in any numbers. It is a sociable, confiding 

 little bird, and its cheery notes add not a little to the charm of 

 the woods, particularly in winter, when most bird voices are 



'Audubon, J. J., Ornith. BioE., vol. 1, p. 199, 1831. 

 fjudd, S. D., Biol. Surv. Bull. 17, p. 187, 1902. 



