Plate LX. 
Fig. 5. PURUS CAROLUIENS/S— Carolina Chickadee. 
The Carolina Chickadee is a southern sj^ecies which, according to “North American Birds,” seldom 
breeds, further north than the Ohio River. Dr. Wheaton, in his last report on the ornithology of his 
state, says of this species: “Not common summer resident. Breeds. Arrives about the middle of April, ap- 
parently departs for the south soon after the breeding season. Resident all the year in South-western Ohio.” 
Dr. F. W. Langdon gives it as a common resident about Madisonville, and Mr. Chas. Dury has found it 
breeding about Cincinnati. I have repeatedly seen it about Circleville late in the fall, and once I saw 
it in December when the ground was covered with snow. During the summer it is by no means un- 
common, but it seems to be irregularly distributed. The first set of eggs is laid in May, and probably 
a second set is occasionally deposited in July. 
LOCALITY: 
It usually frequents sparsely timbered borders of streams, swamps of willows, and ravines about 
creeks and springs, and in such places finds a site for its nest. It generally excavates a cavity in a 
dead limb, trunk, stump, or even a prostrate and semi-decayed log which, lodged on the bank of a stream, 
overhangs the water. Some individuals, either incompetent or too hurried to cut a cavity, build their 
nests in deserted Woodpeckers’ holes or in natural cavities, and some, differently constituted from the 
majority of their species, prefer upland woods or an orchard to the ranker vegetation and taller timber 
of the lowlands. 
POSITION: 
As a rule the nest is over four and under twenty feet from the ground. When an excavation is 
made the birds commonly select a horizontally inclined piece of timber, and make the entrance on the 
under surface. The doorway is projected nearly at a right angle to this surface for a short distance, 
then turns downward and enlarges into a cavity of considerable size, within which the nest proper is 
placed. The cavity formed is as well and accurately cut as that made by any of the Woodpeckers. 
MATERIALS: 
Differing from most birds which excavate a hole in decayed or dead timber, the Chickadee carries 
an abundance of soft material into the cavity, which is worked into a soft felt-like lining, and within this 
the mother-bird deposits her eggs and rears her young. Soft vegetable fibres, vegetable down, wool, moss, 
and fine, short hairs from various animals compose the bulk of the nest. When a natural cavity is 
chosen the site is often much too large and a great deal more material is demanded than when the 
builders do their own carpentry, but the internal dimensions of the nest are always about the same. 
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