The Chestnut-backed Chickadees 
cousin. But having said so much, we have perhaps said too much 
in apology of Penthestes rufescens, for he is one of our darlings, one of 
the daintiest and most alluring of the dwellers in the redwoods. 
What busy little midgets these are as they go trooping through the 
treetops intent on plunder! The forest spaces are vast, so they muster 
a whole regiment for service, in order that they may always have some 
of their own kind within hail. And what a merry war they wage on 
beetle and nit, as they scrutinize every crevice of bark and bract! The 
bird eats insects at all times of year, but his staple diet is formed by 
the eggs and larvae of insects. These are found tucked away in woody 
crannies, or else grouped on the under surface of smaller limbs and 
peristent leaves, as of oak or madrone. 
On this account the Chickadee must frequently hang head down¬ 
ward; and this he does very gracefully, using his tail to balance with, 
much as a boy uses his legs in hanging from a “turning pole,” swinging 
to and fro as though he thoroughly enjoyed it. 
As nearly as we have made out, to date, the commoner notes of 
the Chestnut-backed Chickadee closely simulate those of the Oregon. 
The sweetee call is either indistinguishable or a mere shade smaller. 
The sneezing note becomes more distinct as kechezawick; and 11 Chickadee 1 ’ 
becomes kissadee, the latter given so caressingly that you want to pinch 
the little darling. The Chestnut-backed Chickadee has a really truly 
song, but it is anything rather than musical. When the emotion of 
springtime is no longer controllable, the minikin swain mounts a fir 
limb and raps out a series of notes as monotonous as those of a Chipping 
Sparrow. The trial is shorter and the movement less rapid, so that 
the half dozen notes of a uniform character have more individual dis¬ 
tinctness than, say, in the case of the Sparrow: Chick chick chick 
chick chick chick. Another performer may give each note a double 
character, so that the whole may sound like the snipping of a barber’s 
shears: Chulip chulip chulip chulip chulip. 
The best account of the nesting habits of the Chestnut-backed 
Chickadee has come to us from the pen of J. H. Bowles , 1 and I draw 
largely upon his experience to supplement my own in reaching more 
exact conclusions. Chestnut-backs nest often in loose colonies; that is, 
a certain stretch of half-open woods containing forty acres may have 
a dozen nests, while it might be a mile to the next “village.” Nesting 
is at lower levels of the forest, from two to ten feet, and in drier situa¬ 
tions; though I have found nests as high as eighty feet in a fir stub; 
and in two instances in a dead tree wholly surrounded by water. 
In beginning a nesting cavity this bird almost always avails itself 
1,4 Notes on Parus rufescens in Western Washington,” by J. H. Bowles, Condor, Vol. XI., Mar., 1909, P- 55- 
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