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hold in check these insidious foes of hor- 
ticulture. The vegetable food consists of 
seeds of poison ivy, or poison oak, a few 
weed seeds, and a few small fruits, 
mostly elderberries. 
Chickadee 
Penthestes atricapillus 
Length, about five and one-fourth 
inches. 
Range 
Resident in the United States (except 
the southern half east of the plains), 
Canada and Alaska. 
Habits and Economie Status 
Because of its delightful notes, its con- 
fiding ways, and its fearlessness, the 
chickadee is one of our best-known birds. 
It responds to encouragement, and by 
hanging within its reach a constant sup- 
ply of suet the chickadee can be made a 
regular visitor to the garden and orchard. 
Though insignificant in size, titmice are 
far from being so from the economic 
standpoint, owing to their numbers and 
activity. While one locality is being 
serutinized for food by a larger bird, 10 
are being searched by the smaller species. 
The chickadee’s food is made up of in- 
sects and vegetable matter in the pro- 
portion of 7 of the former to 3 of the 
latter. Moths and caterpillars are fav- 
orites and form about one-third of the 
whole. Beetles, ants, wasps, bugs, flies, 
grasshoppers, and spiders make up the 
rest. The vegetable food is composed of 
seeds, largely those of pines, with a few 
of the poison ivy and some weeds. There 
are few more useful birds than the chick- 
adees. 
White-Breasted Nuthatch 
Sitta carolinensis 
Length, six inches. White below, above 
gray, with a black head. 
Range 
Resident in the United States, Southern 
Canada and Mexico. 
Habits and Economic Status 
This bird might readily be mistaken 
by @ careless observer for a small wood- 
pecker, but its note, an oft-repeated yank, 
is very unwoodpecker-like, and, unlike 
either woodpeckers or creepers it climbs 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PRACTICAL HORTICULTURE 
downward as easily as upward and seems 
to set the laws of gravity at defiance. 
The name was suggested by the habit of 
wedging nuts, especially beechnuts, in 
the crevices of bark so as to break them 
open by blows from the sharp, strong 
bill. The nuthatch gets its living from 
the trunks and branches of trees, over 
which it creeps from daylight to dark. 
Insects and spiders constitute a little 
more than 50 per cent of its food. The 
largest items of these are beetles, moths, 
and caterpillars, with ants and wasps. 
The animal food is all in the bird’s favor 
except a few ladybird beetles. More than 
half of the vegetable food consists of mast, 
i. e., acorns and other nuts or large 
seeds. One-tenth of the food is grain, 
mostly waste corn. The nuthatch does 
no injury, so far as known, and much 
good. 
Brown Creeper 
Certhia familiaris americana and other 
subspecies 
Length five and one-half inches. 
Range 
Breeds from Nebraska, Indiana, North 
Carolina (mountains), and Massachusetts 
north to Southern Canada, also in the 
mountains of the Western United States, 
north to Alaska, south to Nicaragua; 
winters over most of its range. 
Habits and Economie Status 
Rarely indeed is the creeper seen at 
rest. It appears to spend its life in an 
incessant scramble over the trunks and 
branches of trees, from which it gets all 
its food. It is protectively colored so 
as to be practically invisible to its 
enemies and, though delicately built, pos- 
sesses amazingly strong claws and feet. 
Its tiny eyes are sharp enough to detect 
insects so small that most other species 
pass them by, and altogether the creeper 
fils a unique place in the ranks of our 
insect destroyers. The food consists of 
minute insects and insects’ eggs, also 
cocoons of tineid moths, small wasps, ants, 
and bugs, especially scales and plant lice, 
with some small caterpillars. As the 
creeper remains in the United States 
throughout the year, it naturally secures 
