244 
The Chickadee 
Preserver 
of Trees 
saw. He confides in man to a remarkable degree. He hangs about 
the camp of the wood-chopper, looks for the “full dinner-pail,” and 
sometimes comes and feeds from the hand. Many times in the woods 
his curiosity has led him to fly close about my head and peer with bead- 
like eyes into my face, and in numberless instances he has placed absolute 
confidence in those who have fed him in winter. 
Probably no bird is more beneficial to mankind than is this little 
Titmouse. He lives very largely on insects destruc- 
tive to trees ; even in winter, much more than half his 
food consists of insects or their eggs. Myriads of the 
eggs of plant-lice, bugs, canker-worms, moths and bark-lice are eaten. 
No insect appears to be too large for him, and none too small to escape 
his sharp eyes and his little pointed bill. If a caterpillar is too big for 
him to swallow, he holds it under foot and pecks out its vitals, discard- 
ing the rest. If the larva is too large and powerful to be held in this 
way, the bird draws it over a twig, and, seizing both ends in his feet, 
swings back downward underneath the twig, pecking aw^ until he has 
reduced the struggling captive to submission. 
Many larvae, including those of the apple-moth and the gipsy-moth, 
destructive bark-beetles, some weevils and scale-insects, are killed in 
myriads by the Chickadee. C. E. Bailey computed that one Chickadee 
would destroy 138,750 eggs of the canker-worm-moth in 25 days. Pro- 
fessor Sanderson estimates that 8,000,000,000 insects are destroyed by^ 
Chickadees each year in Michigan. My own experi- 
ence, for ten years, has shown that trees may be abso- ■ 
lutely protected from leaf-eating insects by attract-- 
ing Chickadees through the year. 
Our little Titmouse does not depend entirely on animal food, andE 
therefore can exist when the trees are incased in ice and snow. He takes ; 
some weed-seeds, picks up a little waste grain, eats the seeds of pine, 
hemlock, alder, and some other trees, and a few winter berries, partic- 
ularly those of the wax-myrtle, or bayberry. Sunflower-seeds, meat, 
suet, and nuts are relished when he can get them, but he is not known 
to have any harmful habits. 
Protector 
of Foliage 
Classification and Distribution 
The Chickadee belongs to the Order Passeres, Family Paridco, and Genus \ 
Penthestes ; its scientific name is PentJiestes atricapillus atricapillus. This, the >i 
Black-capped Chickadee, is resident throughout the northeastern United States, ! 
and southeastern Canada. Three other subspecies have been defined, i — Long- [ 
tailed Chickadee, P. a. septentrionalis, of the v^estern interior and the Rocky Moun- ; 
tain region, from southern Alaska to Kansas. 2 — Oregon Chickadee, P. a. occi- \ 
dentalis, of the Pacific coast-region from British Columbia to Oregon. 3 — Yukon ij 
Chickadee, P. a. turneri, of northern Alaska. j 
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